SPRINGFIELD (CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS) – Starting today, state courts in Illinois will be prohibited from jailing individuals who are accused – but not convicted – of crimes simply because they cannot afford to post bail while they await trial.

Monetary bond will be abolished in favor of a system that seeks to give judges authority to detain defendants accused of committing violent crimes based on their level of risk to the community or of willful flight from prosecution.

The new system will require more robust hearings when someone’s freedom is on the line, while aiming to avoid disruptive pretrial incarceration if the accused person’s offense was nonviolent and they are not deemed a public safety or flight risk.

Under the law, officers retain the discretion to arrest any individual they believe to be a threat to the public safety or if they believe an arrest is the only way to keep the individual from continued violation of the law, like when a person is trespassing.

One major change, however, is that it directs – but does not require – officers to cite and release the individual if they are accused of a crime below a Class A misdemeanor, with a court date to be scheduled within 21 days.