Bail reform has been one of the more controversial topics in New York politics over the past five years, as have some related reforms to the criminal justice system.
The Bail Elimination Act of 2019 has been at the center of the debate.
The act eliminated cash bail for misdemeanors and some non-violent felonies. The idea was that cash bail served less as a deterrent and more as a punitive measure for poor people accused of a crime in New York.
“We believe we have a system where one is innocent until proven guilty, but in reality, it was that people were guilty until proven rich,” State Senator Michael Gianaris, the bill’s author, told NBC News in 2019.
Under state law, cash bail is not meant to be a penalty for a crime. Rather, bail is meant to serve a specific purpose: to ensure a person returns to court for trial.
How bail reform has worked out in New York depends on who you ask.
Proponents of the reforms argue that before the state curbed the use of cash bail, poor defendants often sat in jail for long periods of time as they awaited trial or the resolution of their criminal cases. In other cases, people were previously held for a week or more because they couldn't post bail in amounts as low as $250 or $500. And they've said that the longer people sit in jail without being found guilty of anything, the more at risk they are of losing jobs, housing, and custody of their children.
Supporters of the bail reforms have said they ensure the state’s poor are not overburdened by the criminal justice system.
Meanwhile, critics of the reforms have argued that the changes led to spikes in crime statewide.
When New York implemented the bail reform laws, it created a statewide pre-trial release database. It's intended to show how many people are charged for new offenses in the time between their arraignment on the initial charges and the resolution of their cases.
There were 891,342 arraignments in New York between Jan. 1, 2020, and June 1, 2023, the most recent data made available by the state. Of those, 444,818 were released on their own recognizance. About 18 percent of those defendants were arrested on new criminal charges while awaiting trial. Just over 2% of all arraigned defendants were subsequently arrested and charged with a violent felony.
For the 118,219 defendants who had a judge set bail at arraignment, 17.7% were arrested on new charges before their cases were resolved. In 3.5% of the cases, the new charges were violent felonies.
New York is not the first state to implement bail reform. In 2021, Illinois effectively eliminated cash bail for all charges, with a goal of ensuring any person accused of any crime could be eligible for pre-trial release. Each case is instead overseen by a judge to determine whether a person is fit to be released.
New York is the only state without a “dangerousness standard,” which is unique. Dangerousness standards provide a means for judges to set bail for defendants or order them held until trial based on whether the defendants are considered a safety risk to the public.
While tweaks have been made to New York's bail reforms, a dangerousness standard has not been put in place. Proponents argue that step would lower the rate of recidivism and protect public safety. Detractors, including the New York Civil Liberties Union, argue such a standard will only allow for racial and economic bias in setting bail.
“Advocates for a so-called ‘dangerousness standard’ want judges to be able to hold people in jail whom they think could commit crimes if they are released,” the NYCLU wrote, in a 2022 report. “In our racially unjust society, ‘dangerousness’ inevitably becomes a proxy for what race a person is.”
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Among the programs he highlighted in his speech: an initiative to ticket drivers who pass stopped school buses and an intervention program for juveniles who have been charged with crimes.
