Majority of New Yorkers favor changing bail law - WRGB
New York State (WRGB) — Amid a rise in violence across the state, a new Siena poll shows a majority of New Yorkers want lawmakers to revisit the state’s controversial bail reform law.
The poll found that 65-percent of New Yorkers polled favor amending the law to give judges more discretion—not on bail but on being able to have the choice to take dangerous offenders off the streets.
The law went into effect in January 2020 after it was passed in 2019. It eliminated cash bail for most misdemeanor and nonviolent felony charges. It also requires judges to consider a person’s ability to pay in cases where a bail is set.
However, since then, the law has been a contentious topic, with some saying it is to blame for a rise in crime in the state.
One of those sounding the alarm is Rensselaer County District Attorney Mary Pat Donnelly.
“It became very dangerous that certain people could buy their way out of jail pre trial and others could not. In that sense, I am glad that standard is no longer in New York State,” said Donnelly.
“But I think we need to revest our judges with discretion,” she added. “ I think it’s really important that a judge is able to evaluate a person in front of them when they’re making a decision on whether to set bail.”
While Donnelly believes the 2019 bail law has not accomplished what it said out to do, Assemblymember Latrice Walker (D-Brooklyn) disagrees.
“I am a strong believer that bail reform has been a huge success. The overwhelming goal of bail reform was to recognize that our system of criminal justice pre-trial was a two-tier system. There were some individuals who could afford to pay bail and be released and others languished behind bars,” said Walker.
Walker was the lead sponsor of the bill, and disagrees with the belief that the bail law is fueling repeat offenders.
“There we’re rollbacks already done in 2020,” said Walker. “When we were in the middle of a pandemic, we were called back to Albany in order to do some significant role back to bail reform and so you do not get another opportunity to be released under bail reform without cash bail, commit another crime, and then think that you have the benefit of bail reform again.”
CBS6’s Briana Supardi spoke with Paul Harding, attorney and managing partner of Martin, Harding, & Mazzotti, to get his legal analysis.
“I think the spirit of bail reform was good,” said Harding.
Harding says that the most felt aspect of the law since it went into effect more than two years ago has been the change in a judge’s discretion.
“I think the issue is that they’ve lost that ability and the public has lost confidence in the ability for the court system to keep dangerous people behind bars,” said Harding.
Assembly member Walker says that right now, amending the current bill is not something they feel is necessary, adding that there’s not enough data to support that the bail law is not working.
source: https://cbs6albany.com/news/local/majority-of-new-yorkers-favor-changing-bail-law
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