BGA pushes Illinois judicial system to release SAFE-T Act-mandated data analyses in new lawsuit

For years, BGA has been working to bring transparency and accountability to Illinois' judicial system. But not only have the courts avoided providing basic information to the public, they have also been violating the law.

Now, the MacArthur Justice Center is representing the BGA and Radical Hospitality Ministries to sue several government agencies that hold the data the public deserves to have access to.

As BGA Policy has written about before, under the SAFE-T Act, the courts were required to begin collecting county-level data throughout Illinois on various metrics relating to the new pretrial release system after the end of cash bail.

The courts not only failed to begin data collection on time, they are still not publishing reports or analyses on all of the metrics they are required to collect data on. Particularly troubling for many advocates of the SAFE-T Act has been the lack of data surrounding the use of electronic monitoring, especially given the expansion of an electronic monitoring program under the Office of Statewide Pretrial Services.

This lawsuit lays bare the injustices and inequities behind the courts' lack of transparency. Without the data the courts are mandated to report, journalists, researchers and the public have no way of knowing how the implementation of Illinois' laws are unfolding. Not only that, but service providers, such as BGA's co-plaintiff Radical Hospitality Ministries, don't have access to the data they need to help identify client needs and evaluate the full effectiveness of their pretrial programs.

It is BGA's goal that not only will this lawsuit force the government to follow the SAFE-T Act, but that it can even overturn the wrongful ruling that precluded the judiciary from Illinois' Freedom of Information Act, finally bringing the courts out of the shadows and into the full sunshine of Illinois' greatest transparency law.