Almost 100 murder suspects in Chicago allowed to stay out of jail under house arrest

CHICAGO (TND) — Nearly 100 people charged with murder in Chicago’s Cook County have been allowed to stay out of jail under house arrest while awaiting trial, local news outlets WBBM and WGN reported.

Chicago officials point the finger at judges who have allowed violent criminals to enter into the pre-trial program.

“I’ve consistently said home monitoring is not a program for people charged with violent offenses,” Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who oversees the program, said during a virtual discussion with other leaders.

Cook County has about 2,600 people free on electronic monitoring, of which 75- 80% have been charged with a violent offense, Dart says.

Jail reforms that limit cash bonds and COVID-19 precautions have ballooned Cook County’s electronic monitoring program into the largest in the country, according to WGN-TV.

When we first started getting the more serious offenders there were just a handful of them and I literally did put a car out in front of those houses," Dart said.

But once the program started to become overwhelmed with more serious offenders, WGN-TV reports Dart ran out of the resources to continue putting cars outside residences.

“The biggest categories that we have, which has completely flipped from what it used to be, are gun offenses — they represent just under 50%,” Dart says.

Numbers from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office reportedly show 90 people charged with murder, 40 people charged with attempted murder and 852 people charged with aggravated gun possession have been allowed to remain out of jail on electronic monitoring.

“Do you feel safer knowing these numbers?” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked during a news conference. “I don’t think any sane person does.”

Lightfoot formally asked Chief Judge Tim Evans to put the most violent criminals on the county’s electronic monitoring program behind bars, according to WBBM-TV. Evans argued Lightfoot’s proposal “seems to require that defendants facing certain allegations be considered guilty until proven innocent."

Dart, despite agreeing with the brokenness of the system, pointed out the data does not show those on the electronic monitoring program commit additional crimes while awaiting trial, WBBM-TV reported.