Petitions to Detain for Domestic Violence Cases

Under the Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA), individuals charged with domestic violence offenses are eligible for detention based on either a public safety consideration or a willful flight consideration. The public safety standard allows for the pretrial detention of individuals charged with specific, detainable offenses who are found to pose a specific, real, and present threat to any person. The willful flight standard allows for the pretrial detention of individuals shown to be a risk for willful flight from prosecution.

The PFA requires that individuals be released on their own recognizance (with or without supervision), unless the prosecutor files a motion to detain an individual pretrial and the judge determines that detention is necessary. If detention is granted, the “Court must make a written finding as to why less restrictive conditions would not assure safety to the community and assure the defendant’s appearance in court.”

This research brief examines detention petition outcomes for domestic violence cases under the PFA in four counties: Cook, DuPage, Kane, and McHenry Counties. The analyses were produced using public data from agency websites. The information provided here pertains only to four of Illinois' 102 counties that have made their PFA data publicly available.

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