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Here are 5 likely changes making it into New York's bail law
By
Samantha Max
Published May 2, 2023
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By
Samantha Max
Published May 2, 2023
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Lawmakers are voting on a budget bill that includes yet another round of changes to the state’s bail laws. The laws — which affect when someone is held in jail when they await trial and when they are allowed to remain free — have been a central sticking point among city and state leaders in recent years. Some, including Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul, say more lenient rules rolled out in 2019 contributed to a rise in crime — a claim experts have challenged. Others, including many criminal justice reform advocates, say laws should allow for less restrictive conditions for people awaiting trial, and should require people to be held in jail only as a last resort.
Here are five changes to bail laws that made it into the final budget proposal:
- Judges would have more freedom to monitor and hold people accused of crimes: Judges already have an array of options when it comes to conditions they can set to ensure someone returns to court. Those include bail, supervised release, GPS monitoring or even letting someone go home with no conditions at all. But for the last several years, judges have been required to impose the “least restrictive” conditions to ensure someone will return to court. The new rules would eliminate that requirement and give judges more discretion to set the conditions they think are appropriate.
- Courts could require mental health and chemical dependence treatment: The bill more clearly outlines options judges have to require people to get treatment as a condition of their release before trial. Language in the law already included options for counseling and intimate partner violence programs. The new language also mentions mental health and chemical dependence treatment. It also says the court can refer people in the midst of a mental health crisis to a stabilization center.
- Judges could combine bail with other conditions of release: This means that a judge could set bail, but also specify that if a person posts bail they will have to follow other requirements, like wearing a GPS monitor or meeting regularly with a case worker. While this was already technically allowed, the new language makes it clearer.
- New options if people break the rules: If someone violates the terms of their pretrial release or is arrested for another crime while they’re out, judges would be allowed to change the conditions of their release. For example, they would be able to set bail even if they had not done so when the person was first arrested.
- New data requirements: The new proposal would mandate that the court keep even more data about people passing through the court system than they do already. That data, which would include the gender, race, days in custody and the top criminal charges of people admitted to local jails, would be shared publicly every month.
Tagged
Albany
budget
bail
Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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