Police responded to Sims’s call, and the road-raging driver was arrested. He paid $15,000—10 percent of his $150,000 bond—and was released from custody the same night.

In September 2023, Illinois became the first state to eliminate cash bail. The reform is a centerpiece of the sweeping package of criminal justice reforms called the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today (SAFE-T) Act, which Sims quarterbacked through the Illinois senate before it became law in 2021.

Sims says his harrowing experience illustrates why bail reform was urgently needed. Though the driver who threatened him was later charged with unlawful use of a weapon, aggravated assault, and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, the man, like many people of means, avoided detention because he could afford bail. Meanwhile, people with limited funds, charged with low-level and nonviolent crimes, had no choice but to remain in jail while awaiting trial. People of color were disproportionately affected.

“For instance, on the day cash bail was eliminated in Illinois, one of the first people released from the Cook County Jail was a woman with three pending nonviolent drug possession cases,” Sims says. Under the cash bail system, the woman had been given a bond of $150,000, the same amount as the driver who threatened Sims. This defendant couldn’t afford to pay $15,000 to be released from jail on these nonviolent cases. After cash bail was eliminated, “the accused’s cash bond was replaced with electronic monitoring,” Sims says.

Achieving balance

The end of cash bail is having a meaningful, positive effect on the daily lives and economic stability of lower-income defendants.

“In discussions with public defenders and attorneys representing criminal defendants, one of the things I hear most often is that the removal of money considerations from these proceedings brings a level of relief for families that was just not there when they had to choose between paying the rent, buying groceries, or purchasing their loved ones’ freedom,” says Sims, noting that during just a few days’ detention, accused people can lose jobs, housing, and other essential life resources.

Contrary to critics’ claims that the new law will put more dangerous criminals back on the street, Sims says it doesn’t require release of people who are safety risks, regardless of income. “Those charged with gun offenses or other violent offenses are seeing more restrictive outcomes, which is exactly the balance the legislature wanted to achieve,” he says, explaining that he and colleagues designed the law to give judges significant leeway in determining whether to detain a defendant. The driver who threatened Sims, for example, checked several boxes under which a judge could have denied release: a public safety risk, a risk to a specific individual, and a flight risk.

“We’ve gotten into trouble in our criminal legal system when we try to be too formulaic,” Sims says, “so we built in a lot of discretion for the judge, who is the trier of fact and closest to the case. Some of the language in the pretrial practices section of the act came directly from our work with the Illinois Supreme Court.”

Sims and his cosponsors also relied on research conducted by Loyola Chicago Center for Criminal Justice codirectors Don Stemen and David Olson, which finds that releasing people from jail without making them pay money has no impact on public safety. Though critics of the SAFE-T Act have worried that defendants are more likely to reoffend if they’re not held in custody, the center’s findings align with multiple other studies showing that cash bail reforms actually reduce recidivism.

Comprehensive reform

Bail reform is just one piece of the SAFE-T Act (House Bill 3653), a sweeping package of legislation that covers several areas of criminal justice reform— policing, pretrial, and corrections—as well as expanding the rights of crime victims (see sidebar). Crafting and passing the act was a “huge team effort,” Sims says, explaining that preparation for the bill included nine public hearings, more than 30 hours of testimony, and numerous cosponsors, including Senator Jacqueline Y. Collins (JD ’20).

“Criminal justice reform is not a zero-sum game, and jail is not the only way to achieve accountability,” Sims says of the act’s elements. “It’s necessary to differentiate between who we’re afraid of and who we’re angry with or disappointed in. In reimagining public safety, we acknowledge that incarceration should be reserved for those who pose threats to public safety or are flight risks. And other issues, like mental health challenges or substance use disorders, require addressing the underlying issues that cause people to engage in behaviors that are unhealthy and destructive.”

Snapshot of Senator Sims

SPRINGFIELD SERVICE—Senator for the 17th Illinois Senate District, which includes portions of the South Side of Chicago, Chicago’s south suburbs, and Will and Kankakee Counties; previously served as state representative of Illinois’s 34th House District and as budget director for the Illinois Senate Democrats under former Senate President Emil Jones, Jr.

HOMEGROWN TALENT—Chicago born; lives in Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood and is active in many civic and community organizations.

FAMILY TIES—Married to Shivonne Sims, father to daughters Kennedy and Mackenzie. Kennedy, a psychology and criminal justice major at Loyola, recently texted her father when her criminal justice professor was discussing the pretrial practices portion of the SAFE-T Act in class, saying, “Dad, we’re talking about your bill!”

LEGAL LIFE OUTSIDE THE LEGISLATURE—Of counsel to Foley & Lardner LLP, where he focuses on government affairs, municipal finance, cannabis regulation and operations, and the state attorneys general practice as a member of the firm’s government solutions and public finance practices.

LOYOLA LOVE—While pursuing his JD degree at Loyola, Sims was profoundly influenced by his experience at the law school’s Community Law Center Clinic. “I got a chance to see the criminal legal system up close and learn how the law intersects with individuals on a daily basis,” he says. This hands-on learning helped spark the commitment to criminal justice reform that still fuels his work. “I’m only sitting here because of the educational opportunities I got at Loyola.”

Accountability for everyone

As chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a member of the Senate Criminal Law Committee, Sims sees much work ahead in his drive to eliminate inequity and reduce racism in the criminal justice system. One focus is ensuring that all defendants have better access to sufficient counsel—a well-established right that Sims says sometimes fails in practice in Illinois when a single public defender covers a large geographical area. Sims was also a leading senate sponsor of House Bill 3140, which prohibits keeping youth in solitary confinement and went into effect this year.

The SAFE-T Act and his other reform work “are all about reimagining our definition of our criminal legal system and public safety,” Sims says. “That forces us to invest in economic opportunities, an educational system that works, and adequate health care to address trauma and other underlying conditions that contribute to criminal behavior.

“When you have a criminal legal system that addresses all those issues, you end by incarcerating those individuals who should be incarcerated and getting treatment for others. That’s real accountability for everyone.” –Gail Mansfield (July 2024)