Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is hoping, with help from Springfield, to expand the Accelerated Resolution Court, or “Rocket Docket.”

What happens if you can’t make bail for a non-violent arrest in Cook County?

“We have people in custody for 30, 60, up to a hundred days in jail for a non-violent offence just because they’re homeless,” said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart on a May episode of Chicago Tonight.

Dart is hoping, with help from Springfield, to expand the Accelerated Resolution Court, or “Rocket Docket.” The pilot program guarantees a low-level, non-violent offender can have a hearing and be released within 30 days on their own recognizance or with electronic monitoring.

Dart says housing 8,500 inmates in Cook County jail is expensive — around $143 each per day.

Backlogged courts, mandatory sentences and high bail amounts result in offenders crowding the jails, many with a minor charge. Waiting for a hearing, an inmate can lose a job or a car and destroy much of whatever support system he or she relies on.

Dart testified to the Illinois State Senate’s Judiciary Committee last year explaining who shouldn’t be in the Cook County Jail system.

“These are people in on retail theft or criminal trespass charges — these are people traditionally looking for a place to sleep,” Dart said. “They are staying for outrageous lengths of time. For the human side of this, these are not people that should be incarcerated for any length of time unless there is a compelling state reason.”

Dart and his team compiled profiles of non-violent offenders in custody for long periods because they didn’t have bail money.

One pregnant woman was arrested for stealing plums and candy bars. She spent more than 200 nights in jail at a cost to taxpayers of more than $50,000. Dart’s team also found a diabetic prisoner who was arrested for stealing eight packs of Snickers and who has spent more than 1,000 nights in the jail at a cost of $160,000. Both had multiple arrests.

“We have to solve this mass incarceration problem and keep jail for the violent offenders,” Dart said.

So far, 67 Cook County inmates have been diverted to the “Rocket Docket” in the first six months of the pilot program, which was signed into law by Gov. Bruce Rauner last summer.

It’s a start, Dart says.

To qualify, for the Rocket Docket, offenders must have a non-violent offense such as retail theft below $300 and have a background free of violent crime.

Data from the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice shows mentally ill or drug addicted arrestees who spend more than a few days in jail awaiting their hearing can become acclimated to incarceration. This makes re-entry into society much harder and drives up the chance they’ll be back again. Now some offenders are “off-ramped” before they become entrapped in the system.

Moving inmates through the process in a timely manner also may relieve some staffing problems at the jail when employees call in sick without requesting a day off.

Alan Mills, executive director of the Uptown People’s Law Center who represents prisoners and low-income clients has an even better idea: Eliminate cash bail altogether.

“The only thing bail is good for is telling who’s rich and who’s poor,” Mills said.

“People actually do come back for court, because they are supposed to, not because they’ll lose money,” he added.

Dart has asked state lawmakers to consider expanding the Rocket Docket option to people charged with other types of offenses, such as minor drug violations.

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— County Rocket Docket saves money, cuts jail time —