The no cash bail system under 2 Cook County State's Attorneys: big differences revealed
Former Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx pushed for bail reform and the SAFE-T Act. It took effect in September 2023, the year before she left office.
The goal of the new law: to take money out of decisions regarding which defendants remain in custody while awaiting trial and which can go home, possibly being put on electronic monitoring.
"Mothers, grandmothers, sisters, partners, should not be making decisions about whether I should pay for my loved one's freedom or pay the rent," said Sharone Mitchell, Jr. He is the Cook County Public Defender and believes in the benefits of the two-year-old no cash bail system.
When Eileen O'Neill Burke took over the top prosecutor's office in December 2024, she vowed to be tougher on violent criminals.
A new CBS News Chicago Investigators analysis of State's Attorney detention dashboard data shows key differences in the way some defendants were handled under the two administrations.
Violent Crimes
When it comes to suspects initially charged with aggravated battery, aggravated assault, robbery, homicide (which includes murder), criminal sexual assault, and vehicular hijacking – all violent crimes -- we discovered some key differences when we looked at the first 6 months of 2024 and the first 6 months of 2025.
Under Foxx last year, prosecutors requested detention in 38% of first appearances. Under O'Neill Burke this year, the request was made in 39% of cases.
But, when it comes to the court granting those requests, there's a bigger gap. 70% granted under Foxx and 80% under O'Neill Burke.
"I think our higher detention numbers are reflective of the additional work that we have put into first appearance court to make sure that we have access to every bit of information, which indicates whether someone is a danger, and we present that information to judges," said O'Neill Burke.
Focusing on murder, attempted murder, and homicide cases specifically, our analysis revealed that both top prosecutors nearly always asked for defendants to remain in jail. 94% of the time under Foxx and 98% of the time under O'Neill Burke.
But, once again a big difference in how often the court granted detention. 89% of requests in 2024 and 98% of the time in 2025.
There are some instances where the Court remands the defendant before a detention petition is even filed by prosecutors.
Public Defender Mitchell is concerned that a pattern is emerging.
"Our attorneys in court are starting to see kind of this kind of systematic just file a detention motion to see what happens. And that's not really the way the law was designed to work," he said.
He has another concern, "Detaining someone before trial also impacts that person's ability to maintain their employment and housing, which further destabilizes our communities and hurts public safety efforts."
Aggravated Domestic Battery
Our analysis discovered an even starker difference when it comes to aggravated domestic battery cases between the old and new State's Attorney administrations.
Foxx championed her high domestic violence conviction rate in her administration's Final Report. She claimed a conviction rate in the mid to high 80% range over her 8 years in office.
But, when it comes to asking for detention to keep the alleged abuser away from the victim, the data shows a different story.
Prosecutors under Foxx asked for detention in 84% of cases in the first 6 months of 2024. But, prosecutors under O'Neill Burke requested it 96% of the time over the same time period in 2025.
And, like with violent crimes, detention was granted more often under O'Neill Burke than Foxx. 85% compared to 61% respectively.
Public Defender Mitchell cautions that all of the data involves initial appearances before a judge in court, "It's important to remember that these initial detention hearings occur at the earliest stages of a case and before all evidence is shared with the court. For that reason, pretrial detention is not an indication that prosecutors will be able to prove a person is guilty in court," he said.
Jail population
So, how are the higher detention rates this year compared to last year impacting the Cook County jail population?
We took a snapshot of one day – August 8th – over a period of eight years.
In 2018, there were 6,046 people behind bars. The demographics: overwhelmingly male, mostly Black, and the largest age group was 25 to 34.
That number dipped to 4,876 at the height of COVID in 2020. After COVID concerns eased, the number ticked back up to more than 6,000.
Jail population began a gradual decline and then decreased by several hundred after the SAFE-T Act was implemented. Attorneys asked for reconsideration and release for suspects in custody. In 2024, there were just under 5,000 people still in custody.
And, in the past year, that number increased again to close to 6,000 – nearly the same population as before COVID. Once again, the demographic makeup of inmates is nearly identical: overwhelmingly male, mostly Black, and the largest age group being 25 to 34.
