A lot changed in Illinois courtrooms on September 18, 2023, the day the Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA) went into effect. The PFA not only abolished cash bail and prohibited the use of pretrial detention in many cases, but rewrote procedural requirements, evidentiary standards, and decision criteria in hearings where pretrial detention is sought. How have these changes been reflected in Illinois pretrial practice? What looks and feels different now that the new law is fully operational? To get an idea, we conducted structured observations of roughly a thousand pretrial hearings during the period immediately after PFA implementation, from September 18, 2023, through December 2023. While we found significant practice variations from one county to another, some clear patterns emerged, including notable changes in the length, substance, and overall tone of pretrial hearings.
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