Anne Oredeko, Supervising Attorney of the Racial Justice Unit at The Legal Aid Society, penned an op-ed in City Limits ​in defense of the newly enacted bail law and urged Albany lawmakers to protect the reform – which have already worked to free thousands of New Yorkers from pretrial detention who were unable to buy their liberty – from any legislative rollbacks.

“Any changes that add pretrial racial profiling or expand unjust money bail to these reforms are an intentional attack against communities of color, disabled people, LGBTQ people, and mentally ill people,” she writes in part. “These are the marginalized communities that have been locked up pretrial, have died in state custody for petty allegations, and who need resources outside of the criminal justice system to prevent further exploitation and harm.”