I'm not either, but I definitely believe that they should be state run and not run by corporations. Corporations are there to only make money, while a state run facility should be focused on lowering recidivism to keep their costs down.

Most people in jail have yet to be convicted of a crime. Their only reason for being there is not being able to afford bail. We're treating them as guilty before they're found guilty.

And those that are, were likely made that way by prison gangs

I think in general people would have an easier time interacting with the system and just existing in proximity to it if the stakes weren't so artificially raised.

Honestly, I'd argue that raising the stakes via the penal system as well as through things like corporate culture and work ethic have more to do with many of our problems than anything else. We'd probably be a lot better off if we took the time to try to teach people patience by not demanding constant impossible perfection and by giving them the room to exist.

So many people get so stressed about literally nothing. I'll pick people up driving my cab and they'll literally apologize for needing to be picked up or apologize for paying with cash or a card or a thousand other things. I spend more time reassuring people that everything is fine and it's completely acceptable for them to call a taxi than nearly any other endlessly repeated interaction.

It's not a big deal. We're all going to die. Just take a second and let yourself enjoy your life instead of subjugating yourself to assholes and apologizing for it. Part of that is minding your own damn business and not locking people up for dumb shit.

However, law enforcement agencies will still be given discretion in certain cases. For example, if a person continues to commit the offense after being cited, they can be taken into custody and held until they appear before a judge, which must occur within 24 hours.

This is completely reasonable. You're picked up for trespassing, cited, released. You go right back and trespass again at the same place. You have demonstrated that a citation and a court date are insufficient to prevent the offending behavior. Now you get to wait in custody until you see a judge.

People can also be taken into custody if they can’t be properly identified (reasonable), or if police believe a person poses a danger to the community or themselves (also reasonable). Police will have to explain their decision to hold the person.

In both of these kinds of situations, the police are empowered to take actions to prevent crimes, and to ensure public safety. This is what we want police to do. These police powers existed before the no cash bail law in Illinois, and it is impractical to require a judge to rule on every such situation at any hour, on any day.

I get that police are a bit famous for abusing the powers they have, but no new power for police to imprison people has been introduced. And, in fact, eliminating cash bail removes an undue burden on arrestees who are unable to pay to excuse themselves from detention. Now, all people in the State of Illinois get treated equally when it comes to pre-trial detention; the rules aren't different depending on how much money you have.