Drug Field Testing Bill Passes
Last week, HB0356, a bill establishing a pilot drug field-testing program for the city of Chicago passed both houses of the Illinois legislature. The bill, chiefly sponsored by Representative Zalewski in the House and Senator Harmon in the Senate, was developed in collaboration with Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice, the Community Renewal Society and Reclaim Campaign, and the Cook State’s Attorney’s Office, with support from Cook County Board President Preckwinkle, the Public Defender’s Office, and many more. Below, we are including a letter published in part by the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (updated to reflect the bill’s passing). We thank all of our partners for this victory and eagerly wait to help ensure proper implementation of the new procedure.
Drug field-testing bill needed for justice system
In Cook County, it is possible for someone to be held in jail on a drug charge for more than three weeks even if they had no drugs.
Those charged with drug possession have to wait 24 days on average just to get to a preliminary hearing at which a judge determines probable cause. Other cases involving more serious crimes (including crimes of violence) get to their preliminary hearings within eight to 12 days.
In 2013, judges in Cook County determined that 27 percent of drug possession cases — 6,116 — were not supported by probable cause and dismissed those cases at their preliminary hearings. A substantial portion of these individuals were being held in jail the entire time that they waited for their preliminary hearings at a huge cost to taxpayers.
In 2010, for example, there were 5,000 detainees at the jail each day awaiting preliminary hearings on drug charges.
Meanwhile, other counties in Illinois and all major cities throughout the country handle preliminary hearings on drug charges within a fraction of Cook County’s time.
Why is our wait period so long?
It’s due in large part to the amount of time it takes to receive a positive drug analysis report from the Illinois State Police crime lab, which is protocol in Cook County for every felony drug case.
Cook County is the only county in Illinois that uses full drug analysis reports at preliminary hearings.
All other counties — and all other major urban jurisdictions around the country — have trained officers using field tests to determine probable cause at a preliminary hearing. These other jurisdictions do not order drug analysis reports from the crime lab until after the offender is arraigned. The average time period from arrest to charge using field tests is eight to nine days.
A bill in Springfield, House Bill 356, would create a one-year $30,000 pilot program that would bring field-testing to Cook County for marijuana, cocaine and heroin. [As of May 31, 2015, HB 356 has passed both houses of the Illinois legislature].
The field tests are simple and cheap: Police put the suspicious substance in a vial of chemicals that costs about $1.25 per unit then pull the substance back out and see if it has changed color.
One newspaper editorial’s support of the bill compared the ease to using a home pregnancy test. Field tests are slightly less accurate than a full lab analysis but have been deemed sufficient by courts all over Illinois and the country to be sufficient for a probable cause hearing.
For those moving on to the trial stage, full lab analysis would still be conducted.
The path to this bill started two years ago when Chicago Appleseed and the Community Renewal Society tried to shorten the long wait time for preliminary hearings in drug cases by pushing for a statute that would limit the number of days an inmate would have to wait between arrest and preliminary hearing.
Illinois has one of the longest statutory maximum times in the country for holding preliminary hearings. Nearly all other states require a preliminary hearing 10 or 14 days after arrest.
Illinois permits a 30-day wait.
Chicago Appleseed prepared a policy brief that made the case for shortening the 30-day window and partnered with the Community Renewal Society to support a bill.
Negotiations with the state’s attorney’s office revealed that lab testing was behind the wait and led the parties to refocus the legislation on field-testing.
The state’s attorney’s office has assured advocates that if the Chicago police can implement field-testing of drugs, they can bring the cases more quickly and shorten the waiting period for determining probable cause.
State Sen. Donald F. Harmon and Rep. Michael J. Zalewskiare cooperating to pass this bill.
In addition to saving tax dollars, this legislation would help prevent the great human cost of jailing thousands of individuals a year, without probable cause or proper review, for nearly a month and profoundly disrupting their lives and futures.
We at Appleseed applaud Harmon, Zalewski, the Community Renewal Society, the county board president’s office, the state’s attorney’s office, the public defender’s office and the Chicago Police Department for collaborating and being supportive of this important initiative.