Legal Aid Society

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NYC Defenders: Albany Must Reject Mayor Adams' Bail Proposal

The Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Defender Services, The Bronx Defenders, New York County Defender Services, Queens Defenders, and the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem are calling on lawmakers in Albany to reject Mayor Eric Adams’ proposal to add a “dangerousness” provision to New York’s bail laws, as reported by AMNY.

The proposal would allow judges to consider an accused person’s level of dangerousness when making decisions about bail, but the organizations warn that such provisions are discriminatory and result in over-incarceration.

“At best, ‘dangerousness’ is guesswork, fraught with implicit and explicit biases, and it only serves to ensnare Black and Latinx communities in the criminal legal system,” a statement from the defenders reads in part. “Short of a crystal ball, no judge can predict behavior, and states that have added a ‘dangerousness’ provision in their bail statute often end up with more, not fewer, Black people in jail.”

“Current law allows for significant judicial discretion, and judges have recently used this discretion, in response to falsehoods from law enforcement and politicians, to dramatically increase the number of cases they set bail on from the broad range of still bail-eligible cases. This has only resulted in a sharp increase in the number of people being sent to and held on Rikers Island, a facility already engulfed by a full-fledged humanitarian crisis,” the statement continues.

The defenders reaffirmed State lawmakers were correct to reform New York’s punitive and draconian bail statute in 2019, noting that “since its implementation, nearly 200,000 New Yorkers have had the chance to fight their cases in their community, maintain their job and education, and have been spared the trauma of pretrial detention. Lawmakers must refuse any changes to existing law that would further imprison New Yorkers who are presumed innocent and have not been convicted of a crime.”