CHICAGO (AP) - Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is being dropped as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging that thousands of poor, largely African-American inmates are being held improperly at the county jail because they can’t afford bail.
Dart was named with several Cook County judges in the lawsuit filed last year that contended setting bail amounts in excess of what inmates can pay violates their constitutional rights.
Attorney Matthew Piers says Monday’s agreement was reached so that he and the other attorneys could focus on judges who set the bail amounts and not Dart who runs the jail, but has no say in bail amounts.
Dart has supported abolishing the cash system that he says unfairly keeps poor people behind bars longer than they should be locked up.
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