Post by Atticus Pizzaballa on Mar 18, 2022 10:30:50 GMT -5
Hochul seeking significant changes to New York's bail laws
Criminal justice advocates slam the governor, while Republicans are cautiously optimistic
Photo of Joshua Solomon
Joshua Solomon
March 17, 2022
Updated: March 17, 2022 11:09 p.m.
ALBANY — Gov. Kathy Hochul is considering substantial changes to the state's bail laws, which have been a fiercely guarded cornerstone of Democratic leadership in the Legislature and among the criminal justice advocates who fought for the changes they said create greater equity in the justice system around race and wealth.
The changes were first four main changes to the state's bail laws, mostly centered around providing judges with discretion to set bail in gun-related cases. It also would give police the ability to arrest repeat offenders for certain low-level crimes, instead of issuing an appearance ticket, which would create the ability for judges to set bail in those cases.
The proposal would ensure that individuals with violent criminal histories could have bail set or be incarcerated by a judge. Generally in many of those cases a judge already was already allowed to set bail or hold someone in custody but now it would require them to do so.
Hochul's memo also offers alterations to the state's pre-trial discovery and "Raise the Age" laws, while supplying additional resources for pretrial services— which the initial changes to the bail laws failed to do.
A substantive proposal by the governor also seeks permanent changes to "Kendra's Law," which allows the state to require severely mentally ill individuals to be ordered to participate in outpatient treatment. Those proposals are already included in guidance the state Office of Mental Health recently had issued.
ported by the New York Post, in an apparent leak of an internal 10-point overhaul of the bail statute — and other criminal justices measures — that had been prepared by the governor's office. The memo was independently obtained by the Times Union.
The plan includes four main changes to the state's bail laws, mostly centered around providing judges with discretion to set bail in gun-related cases. It also would give police the ability to arrest repeat offenders for certain low-level crimes, instead of issuing an appearance ticket, which would create the ability for judges to set bail in those cases.
The proposal would ensure that individuals with violent criminal histories could have bail set or be incarcerated by a judge. Generally in many of those cases a judge already was already allowed to set bail or hold someone in custody but now it would require them to do so.
Hochul's memo also offers alterations to the state's pre-trial discovery and "Raise the Age" laws, while supplying additional resources for pretrial services— which the initial changes to the bail laws failed to do.
A substantive proposal by the governor also seeks permanent changes to "Kendra's Law," which allows the state to require severely mentally ill individuals to be ordered to participate in outpatient treatment. Those proposals are already included in guidance the state Office of Mental Health recently had issued.
A firestorm of comments emerged Thursday after the governor's memo was leaked as advocates who fought for the criminal justice changes lashed out at Hochul while many Republicans and law enforcement officials applauded the proposals they have been pushing the governor and Legislature to adopt. Both sides stuck to their talking points, with the advocates saying the bail changes have not increased crime and law enforcement officials contending they have greatly contributed to the surge in crime.
"Bail reform has been widely successful, allowing our clients to stay in their communities with their families with no measurable impact on public safety," Marie Ndiaye, supervising attorney of the decarceration project at The Legal Aid Society, said in a statement. "The Legislature must reject outright any bail rollback proposal."
Similarly, the proposal would "wind back the clock decades on justice, safety, and equity in New York," said Rodney Holcombe, a criminal justice reform director with New York's FWD.us.
Republican leadership in the Legislature generally was in agreement with much of the policies, but were skeptical if Democratic lawmakers would agree to them. State GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy asserted that the plan was a "whiplash" response to a demonstrative call for changes to the bail laws that former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo made earlier Thursday. (The governor's memo had been drafted before Thursday.)
www.timesunion.com/state/article/Hochul-administration-looking-at-potential-17009819.php?cmpid=115195&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headlines&utm_campaign=tu_dailyheadlines&sid=622e4e2d772fab0d0d752560
I hope she does make changes so as to empower Police and Judges once again to do there jobs and not having to keep giving appearance tickets to coddle these offenders.
