The Kankakee County sheriff and a Will County lawmaker would like to see all felony charges against defendants qualify them for detention under the SAFE-T Act.

Some Democrat leaders in Illinois are open to considering targeted changes to the SAFE-T Act this spring, pending a report from the Cook County chief judge on the issue that may get released at the end of January, according to Capitol News Illinois.

Cash bail was eliminated in 2023. But judges still have the power to keep defendants in jail if they are charged with certain offenses and no conditions could mitigate the risks of their pretrial release.

The law has already been amended numerous times and it was subject to litigation that went before the Illinois Supreme Court, which upheld the cashless bail.

But the SAFE-T Act faced another round of criticism after Lawrence Reed, 50, of Chicago, was charged with a federal terrorism offense for allegedly setting Bethany MaGee, 26, on fire on Nov. 17 while the two were passengers inside a Chicago Transit Authority train.

At the time of MaGee’s attack, Reed had been on pretrial release and electronic monitoring after he was charged with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm.

Following the incident, Kankakee County Sheriff Mike Downey said the SAFE-T Act “ripped away” the ability of judges to keep people jailed with the “absurd and reckless structure of ‘nondetainable offenses.’ ”

A Cook County judge was able to consider Reed’s pretrial detention but denied a request from prosecutors to keep him detained months before the CTA incident, according to CWB Chicago, an independent news site focused on tracking crime in Chicago.

In response to Democrats’ recent openness to changes to the SAFE-T Act, Downey said “we’re all looking at that as a positive.”

“We’re not going to change the entire bill. We know that’s not going to happen. We’re going to have to tweak this slowly but surely, continuing to collect data, continuing to work with our local legislators,” Downey said.

State Rep. Patrick Sheehan, R-Lockport, said he is hopeful Democratic lawmakers are serious about changes to the SAFE-T Act.

“Unfortunately, the victims are the ones who are kind of the voiceless in all of this and I really hope that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are serious about this,” Sheehan said.

Downey and Sheehan recommended all felonies should make defendants eligible for detention.

Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow, one of the prosecutors who filed suit against the SAFE-T Act, recommended changing the SAFE-T Act to “give judges discretion to detain on all appropriate cases.”

The offenses that make defendants eligible for detention include numerous violent crimes and even misdemeanor domestic battery.

But Downey said the list of detainable offenses should include aggravated battery.

A judge can only consider aggravated battery a detainable offense if the charge alleges great bodily harm or permanent disability or disfigurement.

“The legal definition of great bodily harm requires fractures, broken bones or similarly severe injuries. Judges should have the discretion to detain individuals charged with aggravated battery without having to wait for the victim to suffer catastrophic injury,” Downey said.

Downey said detainable offenses should also include aggravated assault with a firearm and failure to register as a sex offender.

State Rep. Jed Davis, R-Yorkville, said the state needs to be “honest about outcomes, listen to local police and prosecutors and acknowledge where this law is failing families across Illinois.”

Kendall County State’s Attorney Eric Weis said he knows the Illinois State’s Attorneys Association is trying to “work with Springfield” to give judges more discretion on keeping individuals in custody.

“I’m cautiously optimistic that will happen,” Weis said.

He said balance is key and there’s no need to “put every non-violent offender in jail.”

“But those that continue to defy court orders, those that continue to commit new crimes or commit crimes of violence and are causing disruption in the community, those are the ones that under the right circumstances, should be incarcerated and we need to make sure judges have the ability to do that,” Weis said.