Southern Illinois News

In a Dec. 6 Facebook post, Sen. Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro, promoted her latest Bryant's Bulletin, including information and changes to the state’s SAFE-T Act.

In the post on Facebook, Bryant claims that Democrats in the Illinois General Assembly elected to do as little as possible to address the worries of Illinois residents regarding the SAFE-T Act.

“This bill does far too little to make the SAFE-T Act a decent law, let alone a good law for the people of Illinois,” Bryant said in the post. “The judges of our state still don’t have the necessary broad discretion to ensure that we keep the public safe.”

According to the Illinois General Assembly website, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed House Bill 1095 into law, the revisions include an expansion of the number of crimes that individuals who could be denied pretrial release. The website also changes the standard for pretrial release, with prosecutors having to prove that a suspect is a threat to safety based on the facts of the case.

“There are still categories of offenses that can’t be held, including burglary,” Bryant added in the Facebook post. “It does not address the unfunded mandates that will cost our counties millions of dollars and force those officials to choose between cutting funding for other priorities and raising taxes.”

According to SE Illinois News, the SAFE-T Act has been under fire from police unions, law enforcement agencies and GOP lawmakers for reforms they say would adversely impact the criminal justice system. Opponents have taken issue with pre-arrest diversion, sentencing, pretrial proceedings, according to the Illinois Criminal Justice Authority.

“At the end of the day, the good components of this bill don’t come close to making up for all of the issues contained in the original law,” Bryant concluded. “We could have and should have done more to ensure that the people of Illinois will be safe and have the best possible criminal justice system.”