Prairie State Wire

Over the course of the past two weeks, Illinois state’s attorneys have filed lawsuits against the state of Illinois in an attempt to stop the SAFE-T Act from going into effect on Jan. 1.

The decisions made by state’s attorneys to go through the courts likely came about due to the lack of response from elected state legislators in Illinois. There are numerous state’s attorneys and county sheriff’s that have expressed difficulty in persuading their state representatives and state senators to push back against the bill. One entity, People Who Play by the Rules PAC, has vehemently urged state’s attorneys to take action against the piece of legislation.

"JB Pritzker and tone-deaf Illinois Democrats seem to be the only people in America who aren’t getting the message that the SAFE-T Act is catastrophically bad legislation and needs to be repealed immediately," spokesman for PBR PAC Mike Koolidge said. "Anger over this law is snowballing, as it should. The number of state's attorneys, both Democrats and Republicans, suing the state over the SAFE-T Act is growing."

As discussion over the SAFE-T Act continues to be elevated, it has become a talking point for other nationwide platforms. On the Sept. 21 episode of the "Joe Rogan Experience," which has an audience size of 11 million, Rogan and Illinois native Will Harris were discussing crime in L.A. and then nationally, and Harris brought up his home state: 

Will Harris: “Well didn’t Illinois just pass some new law?” Joe Rogan: “Yeah, the crazy…” Will Harris: “The Purge…the Purge Law. What the **** is that?” Joe Rogan: “The ‘SAFE-T’ law [sic]. They're essentially eliminating cash bail for almost everything dangerous. Kidnapping, they're eliminating cash bail for second-degree murder, they're eliminating cash bail for a murder through narcotics, so you could like overdose someone and drug them to death and no cash bail…It's crazy, I mean everyone's freaking out…they’re ****ed.”

Harris is a filmmaker and is described as a "creative documentarian" by Sportskeeda. He recently traveled to Dagestan to record Khabib Nurmagomedov, a Russian mixed martial artist. Harris runs a YouTube channel called "Anatomy of a Fighter," which has a subscriber following of more than 500,000.

Recently, Madison County State’s Attorney Thomas Haine released a statement about the SAFE-T Act.

"The greatest jailbreak in Madison County history will occur on Jan, 1, 2023," Haine said. "The SAFE-T Act will severely restrict the ability of our judges to use their discretion by classifying entire categories of crimes as those 'for which pre-trial release may not be denied,' and the SAFE-T Act was passed 'with only Democratic support (not a single Republican voted for it) during the last hour of a 'lame-duck' session.'"

According to Capitol Fax, Gov. J.B. Pritzker responded to Haine on Sept. 23 stating that he was "disappointed" that Haine would defend "a criminal justice status quo where accused murderers, domestic batterers, rapists and other dangerous criminals can buy their way out of jail pending trail if they have enough money." The governor continued on to state that many of the claims Haine made in his letter were not entirely factual and that the SAFE-T Act will detain criminals based on "risk rather than wealth."