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NY Republicans, Mayor Complain About State's New Bail Reform Law
By
Sophia Chang
Published Jan 2, 2020
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By
Sophia Chang
Published Jan 2, 2020
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Republican politicians wasted no time bashing a new state law that eliminates cash bail for hundreds of misdemeanor and non-violent offenses in New York, while Mayor Bill De Blasio also called for amending the law.
Councilman Joe Borelli of Staten Island, who serves as the minority Republican whip in the City Council, tweeted a link on Wednesday to an upstate police department announcing the arrest of a bank robbery suspect who was then released on his own recognizance.
“Happy New Year everyone! Especially happy for our most recent bank robber,” the press release from the Town of Colonie police department said.
“Day one and we released a bank robber. It's a smashing success,” Borelli said in a phone interview. “I think it falls on progressive Democrats to explain to the public how this (law) has made their lives better or safer.”
The state legislature passed bail reform in April after numerous studies found bail punishes poor defendants, especially people of color, while wealthier defendants accused of the same crimes remain free until trial. New Jersey, California, and Washington, D.C. have also abolished or curtailed the use of cash bail.
The new law mandates that judges must consider the least restrictive conditions necessary to ensure defendants return for court appearances. Judges can release someone on their own recognizance with no conditions, or order conditions such as phone calls and text messages reminding someone of their next court dates if there's a flight risk determination.
After a meeting with local Jewish leadership Thursday afternoon in the wake of recent anti-Semitic hate crimes, de Blasio said he would support allowing judicial discretion to determine bail.
"The bail reform law needs to be amended. I believe this strongly," de Blasio said. "There is a chance now for the legislature to get it right. They did some very good reforms but there’s also things that needs to be done particularly empowering judges to determine if someone poses a threat to the surrounding community and giving judges the power to act on that."
Borelli said the process in New York was flawed and ignored public input.
“Other states have reformed jails, reformed criminal justice systems, reformed policing,” he said. “Look at how New Jersey did it. They had two years of hearings and they came up with a more responsible way of implementing bail reform. It should upset people who live in New York that New Jersey is outshining them even (on) policy issues.”
New Jersey enacted reforms in 2017 and now the state's judges combine their discretion with an algorithm that accounts for factors such as the defendant's age, criminal record and nature of the arrest when determining if bail conditions will be set.
Republican State Senator James Tedisco also railed against the new reforms and issued a document on his letterhead titled “Cash Bail ‘Reform’ Eliminations” with a list of alleged crimes where defendants “must be released from custody.” The list of dozens of offenses starts with manslaughter in the second degree and includes failure to register as a sex offender.
While the new law allows judges to initially set bail on a defendant accused of a violent crime, a couple of violent crimes were excluded, like second-degree robbery or second-degree burglary, such as a home invasion while the resident is still at home. Nonviolent misdemeanors and felonies also can include domestic violence, though some advocates have pointed out that most people accused of misdemeanor domestic violence charges aren't eligible for bail because of orders of protection.
State Senator Michael Gianaris, a Democrat who cosponsored the legislation, said the Republican critiques are "just a lot of manufactured hysteria by people who are trying to score political points."
"The distinction that is made with the new law is that crimes that involve actual acts of violence are still bail-eligible," Gianaris said in a phone interview, and added, "all we have done is made it so that the criminal justice system does not discriminate against people who are too poor to pay the bail."
Tedisco had co-sponsored a bipartisan measure in November to allow judges to consider past court appearances and subsequent arrests in determining bail for individual cases. Tedisco didn’t immediately return a call for comment, but appears to confirm in a tweet that he issued a list of crimes no longer eligible for bail as an "information sheet" and act of public service.
Borelli said true bail reform needs to allow for discretion on the part of judges. “They used to have discretion to …weigh a risk of flight and to weigh threat to public. That's the most clear cut way to make this more responsible,” he said. “Someone who steals a pack of gum is not the same person who committed some sort of violent crime.”
Gianaris said the new system will need support from all sides to improve the criminal justice system.
"We've gone from a system that was supposed to be innocent until proven guilty but in fact was guilty until proven rich," Gianaris said. "And we have fixed that glaring inequity in our criminal justice system. The critics would be better served helping all of us work to make this new process effective rather than trying to score political points."
Tagged
republicans
Bail reform
Sophia Chang
Sophia Chang is a former WNYC and Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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