State Senate Republicans did not waste any time in attacking the new bail law and other criminal justice reforms.
“In the wake of a series of shocking crimes and dangerous perpetrators immediately released into communities where they committed them, the Long Island Republican will stand with law enforcement officials to demand that a series of common-sense measures to protect the public are taken up,” read a release issued by Republican senators.
The date of the release was Dec. 31, 2019 – a day before the law went into effect.
On the first day of the legislative session, Republicans in both chambers proposed a failed amendment that would have rolled back the new laws which eliminated money bail for all but two misdemeanors and most non-violent felonies – about 90 percent of all criminal cases.
Changes in the criminal code also required district attorneys to turn over the names, telephone numbers and other information about witnesses to crimes to the defense within 15 days of arraignment – versus the previous 90 days.
Nassau County Legislature Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park) wrote a short time later that “Under this so-called ‘reform,’ many suspects who are charged with committing high-level crimes CANNOT be held on bail and are being released back into the community within hours of an arrest.”
Republicans were not alone in their criticism of the new laws, particularly on Long Island. Newly elected Democratic state senators expressed a willingness to consider changes in the face of Republican attacks of the new law.
District Attorney Madeline Singas, a Democrat, was among those who expressed concerns about the legislation even before it went into effect.
Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, also a Democrat, called for a series of changes presented to the Legislature in the face of a series of news reports of an uptick in crime in January and stories of crimes allegedly committed by people recently released under the new bail law.
Curran and Nassau County Police Commissioner Pat Ryder strongly demanded changes to the law after a homeless man who was scheduled to testify against gang members was found beaten to death behind a Long Island home.
County officials initially tried to link the man’s death to the state’s recent bail reform laws, which they suggested led to his identity being revealed.
But within a day they conceded that any such link was factually incorrect and that the bail reform laws had nothing to do with the attack.
Changes to New York’s bail and discovery laws were long overdue, as the state’s laws were among the most draconian and unfair in the country.
Prisons were filled with poor people many of whom were black and brown simply because they could not afford to post bail while more those with means went free.
This is not to say that small tweaks to bail reform may be warranted. But the rush to change the laws is not, and the whiff of politics on an issue with great consequence for the accused is troubling.
A study done in 2017 found that 72 percent of those incarcerated were behind bars because they could not afford to post bail for their arraignment.
For many, this means the loss of a job or the breaking up of a family.
The unfairness of the system crystalized several years ago with a Bronx teenager who spent three years on Rikers Island because his family could not raise $3,000 after he was charged with stealing a backpack, only to have the robbery charge for allegedly stealing a backpack dropped for lack of evidence. The teenager later took his own life.
Blank Slate Media hosted a community forum on bail reform last Thursday to address the new law and consider what changes if any are needed at this time.
The panel consisted of state Assemblyman Ed Ra, a Republican representing the 19th district; Nicole Triplett, policy counsel for the NYCLU; Shanequa Levin, co-founder of the L.I. Black Alliance and Edward Perkins Jr., first vice president of the Nassau County Policy Department’s Superior Officers Association.
Shenequa Levin, co-founder of the L.I Black Alliance said at our forum that two months is too short a time to make a judgment on the new laws. The crime rate is dependent, she and others have noted, depend on many factors including the weather.
We do agree with many critics that judges have not been given enough discretion in holding people in jail, but we believe that this discretion should be limited.
New York’s chief judge, Jane DiFiore, last week recommended that the law be amended to secure orders “for those very few individuals who have been shown to pose a credible risk of danger to an identifiable person or group of persons” – rather than a wider “risk to the community” called for by Republicans.
DiFiore coupled her request for adding judicial discretion by saying that it be used after a “full and fair adversarial hearing.”
We believe this is a reasonable criteria that reduces the chance that someone is kept bars because of the color of their skin or how much money they have.
We would do well to remember that we are talking about people who have been charged with committing crimes not convicted of committing crimes, and that under the Constitution everyone is considered innocent until proven guilty.
While panelists at Blank Slate Media’s forum offered strong differences in approach, most agreed that district attorneys should be given more time to turn over the names, telephone numbers and other information about witnesses to crimes to the defense.
All also agreed in the need for additional funding to protect witnesses, monitor people out on bail and to treat the mentally ill. New York City officials estimated that 40 percent of the people jailed suffered from mental illness.
We would add that the impact on people’s lives on the administration of bail and other criminal justice issues is too important for them to be used for political gain.
Correction: The editorial originally incorrectly stated that Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas demanded changes to the law after a homeless man who was scheduled to testify against gang members was found beaten to death behind a Long Island home.
