Your turn: Winnebago County State’s Attorney SAFE-T Act position is dangerous

J. Hanley is our Winnebago County State’s Attorney, and from September 9, 2022, to the present, rather than upholding the legal process, has undermined public confidence in the legitimacy of the Pretrial Fairness Act and thus the new SAFE-T Act and criminal justice reform in Illinois.

Despite being in the educated position to know better, Hanley, by his public statements in the Rockford Register Star on September 9, 2022, and since has deliberately contributed to the general and political fear-mongering asserted by opponents that future implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act endangers public safety by “purging” our jails of masses of defendants (or “criminals”) pretrial who will then threaten the health and welfare of us all and render our streets unsafe.

This is misleading and dangerous to public safety.

Hanley then followed many other state’s attorneys and filed a statewide, boiler-plate lawsuit, provided to them by the Illinois GOP, challenging the constitutionality of the new law. Hanley is our local agent to enforce the law, but by inserting politics into issues of law enforcement he no longer serves that purpose.

State’s Attorney: More than half of Winnebago County Jail to walk out door Jan. 1

The lawsuit was consolidated in Kankakee County court into one lawsuit together with 65 other state’s attorney lawsuits. On December 28, 2022, the Kankakee court upheld the overall constitutionality of the SAFE-T Act and criminal justice reform and has permitted a challenge only to its Pretrial Fairness Act (or bond reform) provision.

The Illinois Supreme Court stayed the implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act on December 31, 2022, but will rule on its legality on an expedited basis sometime after March and is expected to uphold the law.

Opponents, including Hanley, were never going to successfully stop the SAFE-T Act and have only temporarily delayed bond reform in Illinois. Their lawsuit never even addressed any of the merits of Hanley’s reservations or others in the first place.

Story continues

The SAFE-T Act was revised by the Illinois General Assembly after passage in 2021, and misrepresentations and fears about its consequences are widely refuted by legal experts. Everyone knows now that it was never going to result in any “purge” of jails.

Fewer violent individuals will be released pretrial under its Pretrial Fairness Act than are released daily now by current Illinois law. The public should also know that preparations undertaken by our county court systems will maintain public safety and legal processes will still be effective whenever the Pretrial Fairness Act is implemented statewide.

What Hanley and others did pre-election November 2022 however, was seek to whip the public into a frenzy of fear and political dissatisfaction over the Pretrial Fairness Act to try to defeat Democrats statewide at the polls. That effort failed dramatically, but it resulted in extensive public disrespect for the Pretrial Fairness Act and Illinois criminal justice reform overall, and a far worsening attitude towards all defendants — all created by misinformation.

Your turn:SAFE-T Act misinformation caused harm across Rockford and Illinois

Hanley has since issued a back-tracking statement: “I regrettably probably contributed to this in a way that I do regret. … It’s not going to be a purge.” That is not a retraction or refutation of his public assertions or even an apology for his actions and has barely been covered in the press. It is painfully inadequate to redress the harm caused by his words and actions.

Hanley’s Rockford Register Star opinion piece and subsequent comments misrepresented aspects of the Pretrial Fairness Act, inflamed the public and were broadly publicized. They were even quoted on page 2 of the “Rockford Sun” “newsletter,” a political rag that was mailed out pre-election statewide in different versions to registered voters and contained questionably obscene sexual content related to minors.

In its aftermath, Hanley or any other state’s attorneys are unlikely now to investigate or prosecute any possible wrongdoing by the Rockford Sun despite its despicable and probable illegal content. We ask: Why would Hanley even allow the Rockford Sun to showcase his op-ed in the first place?

Haney and other state’s attorneys statewide who for some reason feel competent to personally decide which laws are “constitutional” or not, only encourage other public officials to do the same.

Local sheriff Gary Caruana has since joined other Illinois sheriffs in declaring that he will not enforce the states’ newly enacted law that bans military-style weapons and requires those who already own such guns to register with the state, because he interprets the new law as a unconstitutional attack on the 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

Ordinarily, we would look to Hanley to take leadership to ensure that Illinois law is enforced locally, but how can we expect Hanley now to effectively counter whatever action Sheriff Gary Caruana doesn’t take or to even criticize him if Caruana chooses not to enforce the law even when other illegal activity is involved?

It is hypocritical of Hanley now to criticize or attempt to reign in other local officials who choose not to do their job and enforce the law or who undermine it simply because they have a personal or political objection to any law when he is working to do the same.

We don’t have much public protection against misconduct by elected and local officials. Hanley, by his words and actions, has effectively removed himself and his office from being our primary local safeguard against such misconduct by local officials.

Hanley’s candidacy as state’s attorney was supported by respected members of our community, including some legal members who have remained notably silent regarding his recent actions. We call upon the conscience of that group to influence Hanley to now act properly — to drop a lawsuit which does not benefit us, to immediately retract and refute all his negative and inaccurate comments about the Pretrial Fairness Act and to post a standing notice of change in his position on his agency’s website and to act responsibly in the future.

He should also issue a personal apology for any personal danger and fears his actions have helped create for families and local individuals such as State Rep. Maurice West.

Rhonda Greer-Robinson is the president of the NAACP Rockford branch. The mission of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Your turn: Illinois State’s Attorney SAFE-T Act position is dangerous