Trump says ending cash bail endangers women. Advocates say it protects them.

In 2015, a pregnant and homeless 30-year-old woman spent 135 days in an Illinois jail because she stole two plums and three candy bars from a Save A Lot store.

That same year, a 41-year-old Illinois woman, who was later determined to have a mental illness, spent 112 days in jail for “criminal trespassing” — smoking a cigarette on the steps of a vacant mobile home.

These kinds of stories, recorded on the Cook County Sheriff’s Office blog, are common throughout the United States. Women and LGBTQ+ people who encounter law enforcement while experiencing poverty, health crises or gender-based violence are often trapped behind bars for days without a criminal conviction because they cannot pay their pretrial bail.

In 2021, Illinois decided to make a change and became the first state to elimin