A nasty divorce case has put a man behind bars for 18 months in Chicago’s Cook County Jail despite what he says is a clean criminal record.
Thanks to a law first proposed by Illinois’ black lawmakers after the George Floyd protests of 2020, thousands of dangerous inmates are being released onto the streets of Chicago and other cities, while those subject to civil complaints are jailed like criminals.
Such is the case of Illinois native Steve Fanady, 59, who has been rotting in a Cook County jail cell in solitary confinement for 18 months over an unresolved, 14-year-old divorce settlement.
“I’m terrified of dying in prison over a 14-year-old divorce case,” Fanady told the New York Post.
A provision of the state’s 2023 Safety, Accountability, Fairness, and Equity-Today Act, or SAFE-T, effectively eliminates cash bail, allowing inmates who…
