Staff Attorneys from The Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Defense Practice have published an Op-Ed in today’s Brooklyn Daily Eagle signaling alarm over New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s intent to force rollbacks to 2019’s bail reform through changes in the state budget.

Attorneys Zamir Ben-Dan, Michael Pate, Erin Bannister, Alexandra Smith and Nora Carroll express concern that discussion over the impact of rollbacks will be non-existent as the state rushes to pass its budget in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic – a factor they fear Cuomo will exploit to minimize pushback.

“To exploit the coronavirus panic to silently kill this reform is not only unconscionable; it is inhumane,” they write.

Read the full piece here.