Article by Abigail Rosas, TPT Staff Writer

Recently, the media has taken a turn on the new Safe-T Act put in place by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker. The Safety, Accountability, Fairness, and Equity Today Act, known as the SAFE-T Act, is the new Illinois law that will abolish cash bail starting January 2023. This will result in a massive reform for working-class minorities directly unable to afford cash bail. For years, we’ve seen the constant inequity caused by systemic racism in our criminal justice system. Black and brown communities have been faced with over policing, a lack of government assistance, and unfair sentencing to minor crimes. All of these inequities lead to the overcriminalization of black and brown communities. Illinois took that first step to reform the justice system, but is now faced with waves of backlash and fear mongering from the media.

The Safe-T Act will eliminate state wide cash bail. Once the law is in place, a defendant can only be held in jail pending trial if they are accused of certain felonies, like murder or sexual assault, and if prosecutors can persuade a judge that the suspect creates a threat to any person or community, or is likely to flee. This law helps those who cannot afford cash bail and for those struggling to fight minor crimes behind bars, as well as those who are wrongfully convicted. The United States has the highest incarceration of people of color in the world. Despite the US having a Black population of only around 13%, nearly 40% of Black Americans are incarcerated. 40% of the incarcerated population are behind bars without a valid purpose related to public safety. (Sawyer,2022). The Safe-T Act puts boundaries in place to keep communities safe while giveing equitable opportunities to those unrecognized in the justice system. With this law in place, it also will fight to lower the percentage of people in prisons, leading to the decline of mass incarceration. With all this information and reform, why are people going against this law being put in place? The answer is simple: The United States was built on an ideology of stopping Black and brown liberation.

Photo via Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters

If we look into the constant battle to reform racist laws and systems, there is a constant pattern of media backlash. From the disagreement of banning slavery to the recent backlash of incarcerating Derek Michael Chauvin, the police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd in the summer of 2020, the US has constantly tried to stop reform with the power of misinformation. Once the Safe-T Act was announced, the media spread misinformation in a heartbeat to create a negative connotation around its ideals. It was dubbed ‘The Purge Law,’ and advertises as letting ‘criminals’ walk free. This misinformation reigned the media for weeks, along with conservative backlash, pushing down the true facts deeper into the internet. This had a strong influence in the public's education about this new law. This law was supposed to be the start of justice reform, but instead was painted with a negative output to the world. Platforms like TikTok and YouTube were essential in this spread of misinformation. These platforms are mostly directed towards the younger generation, giving them a chance to be gullible to fake news being spread in the media with little to no research behind the information being spread. A viral list was posted, stating that people who commit dangerous crimes such as second degree murder or arson, will no longer be eligible for detention. The misinterpretation of the Safe-T Act to reform the justice system runs the risk of allowing the sustained growth of mass-incarceration.
Many people are misinformed about the dangers of putting people in prisons and the increase it has on crime rates. Laws have encouraged the incarceration of people and have put an importance on prisons being the only solution to reducing crime rates. It is necessary to break free from these ideologies by educating others on the dangers prisons have on communities. Putting more importance on the distribution of equal resources like health care and education, defunding police and prisons, and pushing more reform laws like the Safe-T Act, is essential for reducing crime rates. It starts with community; each nonprofit organization put in communities contributes to the homicide rate going down 1.2%. Misinformation in the media is highly likely when reforming a historically racist justice system, but with more power to the voices of those misrepresented in the media, it is slowly making much needed change.

The views articulated in this piece are the writer’s own, and do not reflect the official stances of The Progressive Teen or HSDA at large.

The Development of the Safe-T Act in the Media