Staff Attorneys in The Legal Aid Society’s Decarceration Project represented by Bridgette Bissonnette, Michelle McGrath, and Jane-Roberte Sampeur have penned a new op-ed in the New York Law Journal addressing Mayor Eric Adams’ ill-advised proposal to amend the State’s bail laws.

The Mayor has continued to incorrectly claim that 2019 bail reforms have led to an increase in violent crime and recently called for a “dangerousness” provision that would give judges greater discretion in setting bail. But the lawyers warn that such provisions are discriminatory and will inevitably result in over-incarceration.

“There are nearly fifteen times as many Black people detained pretrial for more than 90 days as there are white people currently held by the New York City Department of Correction. More than one third of the people detained pre-trial are diagnosed with serious mental illness. Every single person held on bail is there solely because they are too poor to purchase their freedom,” they write in part. “Granting courts the discretion to decide who is dangerous as a precursor for bail decisions will lead to the incarceration of more New Yorkers and will only exacerbate these classist, racist, and ableist disparities.”

“We cannot incarcerate our way out of gun violence,” they continue. “If we could, the United States would have the least gun violence of any country in the world. New York City’s jail population has risen over the last year and a half—along with gun violence. It is deeply troubling that the Mayor has fallen into the canard that police and prosecutors are guardians of public safety when the experiences of our clients, almost exclusively Black and Brown and poor New Yorkers, are safe in the hands of neither.”

Read the full piece here.