A year into Illinois' bail reform, more people charged with domestic violence in Cook County have been ordered held pending trial compared to the year prior. And with setting bail no longer an option, judges appear to be more deliberative in the initial hearings that determine whether to hold or release a defendant. While detention does not always equal safety, according to anti-domestic violence advocates, they say they have generally seen judges issue decisions based on actual risk to survivors under the state's Pre-Trial Fairness Act. There have been cases where advocates have strongly disagreed with a judge's interpretation of a law, most notably a recent decision by a Cook County judge to release a man charged with attacking his wife. The man allegedly killed the woman weeks later. Related Illinois becomes first state in nation to eliminate cash bail: Here’s how it will work There is still work to be done to ensure prosecutors and judges are using all the tools available to them under the new law, but all advocates who spoke with the Sun-Times agree this new system appears to be working better overall than the prior. “We believe that we are moving in the right direction,” said Amanda Pyron, executive director of the Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence.“We know that counties across Illinois have invested significant amounts of resources in improving their systems to have a focus on risk and not wealth, and we think that is a benefit to survivors. What we're hoping continues to improve is inclusion of victims and witnesses in the pretrial process … because ultimately, victims are the experts in their own safety.” Amanda Pyron is president and CEO of The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence.Pat Nabong/Sun-Times The Pre-Trial Fairness Act, which took effect in September 2023, eliminated cash bail in hopes of ending wealth-based jailing but still allows for detention of people charged with violent crimes. Both misdemeanor and felony domestic violence charges are listed under the law as detainable offenses.The law was supported by the Network, a coalition of several advocacy groups, the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, and the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence — who argued the old money-based system did little to keep survivors of domestic and sexual violence safe.Before, a defendant could be issued a money bond and walk out of jail at any moment. Now, survivors and advocates know at the initial hearing whether a defendant will be released.“When you know somebody is (or is) not in custody, it takes a big portion of safety planning off of advocates' plates, because so much of our safety planning was … ‘How do we know if they get released? What are the safety measures we have to put in place if they randomly walk out of 26 and Cal at 3 a.m.?” says Tessa Kuipers, legal advocacy program director at Family Rescue.“To be able to know, this person is in custody or this person is out, we can adjust the safety planning for the actual need, as opposed to the anticipated change,” she says.Bail reform by the numbersThe year before bail reform, 182 defendants facing domestic violence charges in Cook County were ordered held without bail, according to data from the state’s attorney’s office. That was 1.5% of total domestic violence cases that year.In the first year of bail reform, prosecutors filed petitions for detention in 16% of the 13,326 domestic violence cases. About two of every five of those requests were granted, meaning 875 individuals or 6.6% of those charged with domestic violence were ordered to be detained pending trial, according to data from the Circuit Court of Cook County. The year before bail reform took effect ~Sept. 18, 2022 to ~Sept. 18, 2023 There were 11,961 domestic violence cases in Cook County Defendants were ordered held without bail in 182 of those cases In the first year of bail reform Sept. 18, 2023 to Sept. 21, 2024 There were 13,326 domestic violence cases in Cook County Petitions for detentions were filed in 2,085 of all cases and 875 of those petitions were granted. Source: Circuit Court of Cook County Jesse Howe/Sun-Times Of those who were charged with domestic violence in Cook County this past year and released pretrial, 5% failed to appear for a scheduled court hearing.While advocates see the low failure-to-appear rate as a positive, they are cautious not to overanalyze rates of detention.“It’s difficult to interpret real outcomes from those numbers," Pyron says. "Arrest and incarceration are sometimes the right answer, but they're not always the right answer. … So you can't look at those numbers and say definitively that people are safer because those are the rates of detention.” Judges digging deeper In general, anti-gender-based violence advocates have noticed judges spending more time on initial appearance hearings and considering more factors in their decision-making. This was also seen by Loyola researchers who sat in on court hearings in Cook, Lake, McLean and Winnebago counties before and after implementation of the law.Before the law, the median length of a bond hearing — to determine if a person would be released and what their monetary bail would be — was between four and six minutes.Now the median length of detention hearings in those four counties is between 10 and 30 minutes.“Listening to the judges — when they're making these decisions, go into the history, go into the risk towards the victim and the community at large — I think it's really, really promising that this law allows them to take those things into consideration,” says Loren Gutierrez of Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Family Services. Discrepancies across countiesAcross the state, the majority of detainable cases filed involved domestic violence charges, according to a report from the Loyola University Chicago Center for Criminal Justice Research.Numbers for detention have varied across counties, with some collar counties filing petitions to detain in domestic cases at much higher rates than Cook's 16%.In McHenry County, petitions to detain were filed in about 45% of the 518 domestic violence cases. In DuPage, prosecutors sought detention in 56% of 1,630 domestic violence cases. Comparing other counties Numbers for detention have varied across counties, with some collar counties filing petitions to detain in domestic cases at much higher rates than Cook. But while both McHenry and DuPage counties are filing for petitions at higher rates than Cook, their rates of denials also are higher. Data is for the first year under bail reform. DuPage County 1,630 domestic violence cases 43%of domestic violence cases had no petition filed 42%of cases had petitions filed and denied 15%of cases had petitions filed and granted McHenry County 518 domestic violence cases 54.5%of domestic violence cases had no petition filed 33%of cases had petitions filed and denied 12.5%of cases had petitions filed and granted Cook County 13,326 domestic violence cases 84% of domestic violence cases had no petition filed 9% of cases had petitions filed and denied 7% of cases had petitions filed and granted Source: Circuit courts of DuPage, McHenry and Cook counties Jesse Howe/Sun-Times “A lot of [the policy's] implementation is dependent on who the prosecutor is leading in office," says Loyola researcher David Olson. "And as those people change, you could see differences occurring in terms of the rate at which detention is sought, and that can obviously impact the rate at which detention is imposed because it's all initiated by the prosecutor.”While both McHenry and DuPage counties are filing for petitions at higher rates than Cook, their actual rates of detention are much lower.Of the domestic violence cases in which a petition for detention was filed, it was granted 27% of the time in McHenry County and 26% of the time in DuPage County — compared to 42% in Cook County. Some advocates wonder if the ability to appeal detention has affected judges' decisions.The first three months of the Pre-Trial Fairness Act generated an “unexpectedly high volume of appeals” across the state, according to the Loyola report, with 1,899 direct appeals from detention decisions.Loyola researchers did notice a “pattern of caution” across Illinois — not in how judges are ruling, but in how careful they are to articulate their reasoning.Still issues to addressLegal advocates note there are still issues to address in how the law is being interpreted and implemented at Cook County’s Domestic Violence Courthouse.There have been cases, advocates argue, in which a defendant should have been held but was released. Most notable was a recent case in which Judge Thomas E. Nowinski rejected prosecutors’ petition to hold Constantin Beldie in jail after he was charged with choking and attempting to kidnap his wife, Lacramioara Beldie. Authorities say he stabbed her to death about seven weeks later on Nov. 19 in Portage Park. He was found dead in a car a block away. A review of court documents found that prosecutors and courthouse workers failed to mention key information about Beldie's history of domestic violence during his detention hearing. Prosecutors did assert that Beldie was a flight risk and a threat to public safety but Nowinski found they did not meet their burden of proof. The types of charges Beldie was facing are viewed by advocates as a red flag indicating a risk of more violence. Under the old money bond system, judges could not have granted detention for those charges. Advocates have called for Nowinski to — at a minimum— be reassigned from domestic violence court, citing his failures in judgment.Chief Judge Timothy Evans announced Tuesday that Nowinski was not hearing cases due to “anonymous threats.” Related Domestic violence judge who released man suspected of killing wife is off bench after anonymous threats Under the new law, state’s attorney's offices are also required to notify victims of any hearings and inform them of their ability to file for protective orders at each hearing. But one year in, advocates say this notification process is still flawed.Both advocates and the state’s attorney’s office say failures of notification are often the result of incorrect or outdated contact information listed on reports.“It's not for the lack of trying,” says Edith Gonzalez, victim witness supervisor at the Cook County state's attorney's office. The office now has victims specialists on site seven days a week and has hired additional staff — tasked with making notifications and informing victims of their opportunity to file for a protective order. Lake County State’s Attorney Eric RinehartSun-Times file In Lake County, State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart says they’ve also made staffing adjustments this past year, adding more prosecutors and victims specialists to their Felony Review Office to ensure “several state’s attorneys” review each petition for detention.“Detention is very serious, so we are making sure that lots of opinions are heard, and that there's never tunnel vision, and we are putting the resources into reviewing the detention decisions, particularly on domestic violence,” Rinehart says.In DuPage County, the state’s attorney's office made serious procedural changes following a domestic violence homicide in the spring.A Villa Park man charged with a domestic violence misdemeanor was released on GPS monitoring and about two weeks later killed his wife before turning the gun on himself.The state’s attorney's office claimed it did not have enough information — on the man's history and access to firearms — by the time of the initial hearing and now requires police officers to call their felony screening unit for all misdemeanor domestic violence cases that involve injury, so prosecutors can make a more informed decision on whether or not to file for detention. Madeleine Behr, policy director at the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual ExploitationSun-Times file As issues continue to pop up, advocates inside and outside of the system are working to find solutions, says Madeleine Behr, policy director at the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation.“Everyone gets really excited about passing a law, but the not-fun part is making sure that the law works," Behr says. "It's the most critical part, and it takes a long time.”“No one in our community was expecting this to be perfect on day one. ... It's still a human system, but as long as we continually come to the table, continually try and work on this, we're going to keep improving.” Related Illinois becomes first state in nation to eliminate cash bail: Here’s how it will work Bail reform sees a smooth rollout in Cook County Bail reform can protect victims of domestic, sexual violence, activists say In Domestic Violence Court, promising first day of bail reform as judge works ‘few kinks out of the system’ End of cash bail next week could spark more electronic monitoring, bail reform supporters fear Bail reform can protect victims of domestic, sexual violence, activists say With cash bail eliminated in Illinois, Cook County Jail population shrinks