This November, CCBF will celebrate the seventh anniversary of our launch. In just seven years, we have helped win policy changes that dramatically reduced the number of people incarcerated in Cook County Jail and been part of defending the movement to end money bond across Illinois. CCBF has also created a sustainable, revolving community bail fund that has now paid over $5.1 million in bond to free more than 750 people from jails and electronic monitoring in Illinois—more than half paid in the last two years.

2021 was an unprecedented year for CCBF. Your support has allowed CCBF to continue defending this movement to end money bond with our partner organizations and hundreds of people across Illinois. All of our collaborative efforts led to the passage of the Pretrial Fairness Act last year, and we are just months away from its full implementation in January 2023. 

CCBF continues to work closely with our partners in the Coalition to End Money Bond and the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice, Chicago’s abolitionist organizers, and civil rights attorneys. We are immensely proud of the work we did together last year as a movement, and we hope you are, too. 

The end of money bond shows us that these hard-earned victories are possible, and we also know that the work continues. The Covid-19 pandemic still threatens the lives of people incarcerated in Cook County Jail, and the capitalist, white supremacist violence that led to the uprisings of summer 2020 has not dwindled. CCBF remains in solidarity with communities resisting state violence and surveillance.

We look forward to the victories ahead: seeing the end of money bond in Illinois, dramatically reducing the number of people incarcerated while awaiting trial, and reinvesting the money previously used to cage Black and Brown people into resources that help our communities thrive. 

Thank you for your continued commitment to pretrial freedom.