Attorneys from The Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Defense Practice penned an op-ed in City Limits decrying the state budget, which was used by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to force a rollback of bail reform. The budget reflects the efforts of establishment forces who have stoked pervasive fears of escalating crime rates to gut the legislation.

Zamir Ben-Dan, Rachel Wagner and Sarah Young – staff attorneys and Action Committee members with Legal Aid’s Brooklyn Trial Office – describe a campaign by Republicans, law enforcement, district attorneys, and moderate Democrats to create an aura of fear around the impact of bail reform which was not supported by evidence or statistical data. Defender organizations have hailed the reform as alleviating many elements of unfairness that have allowed offenders – largely people of color – to keep their jobs, homes and families intact as their case proceeds through the courts.

“Because this state has chosen to yield to politics and hyperbole instead of the facts and information, more poor people and people of color will be victims of an unjust bail system that did not even have to be,” they write. “It would be amusing to see how long it takes for New York to get it right again if the consequences were not so tragic.”

Read the full piece here.