If you’re charged with a crime in New York state next year, your odds of spending a night in jail just went down.
The state Legislature this weekend eliminated cash bail for most misdemeanor and non-violent felony offenses. The law goes into effect in January 2020.
New York becomes the third state to stop using cash bail to get people accused of low-level offenses to return to court. Once enacted, most people charged with misdemeanor and non-violent felonies will be automatically released. It’s a controversial change that the legislature has up until now steered away from, but that has drawn bipartisan support nationwide.
Even one of the staunchest critics locally, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, said he supported the idea behind the law and could live with the version that was passed.
The legislature approved bail reform, along with other other criminal justice reforms addressing discovery and speedy trial laws, as part of this year’s budget package late Sunday night into Monday morning.
Just how much this will affect people in Onondaga County is in dispute, but one provision is certain to keep more people out of jail before they even appear before a judge: The bill requires police officers to issue appearance tickets for most low level offenses.
“That’s a game changer,” said Emily Singletary, who runs a local criminal justice non-profit Unchained. “That’s really huge in terms of keeping people out of our jails, allowing people to continue on with their lives, continuing working, supporting their families, not losing their apartments – all the things that happen when people spend even a night in jail.”
“Long time coming,” agreed Kelly Gonzalez, regional director for the Center for Community Alternatives.
The advocates said Albany’s reforms will make the criminal justice system more fair for people living in poverty in places like Syracuse.
They say it will allow groups like CCA to help the defendants they work to improve their lives while out on bail and to make wiser choices about their cases (such as if they should accept a plea offer). Advocates say it could even set up defendants to be in a better position to pay restitution to victims -- instead of paying a fee to a bail bondsman.
DA Fitzpatrick said he supported the idea behind the law, that poor people should not “languish” in jail because they are unable to pay bail.
He said at least 10 years ago, his office put protocols in place to prevent that from happening: He instructs his assistant district attorneys not to ask for bail in cases where it would only serve to keep a poor person behind bars. He also assigns a chief ADA to review jail records at least once a week. If his office finds someone has been stuck in jail with bail on low-level charges, prosecutors will ask a judge to release the defendant, Fitzpatrick said.
“That’s really silly," he said. "We don’t want to just be penalizing poor people.”
Fitzpatrick said his biggest concern with the legislation is ensuring defendants from out of town come back to court. He said he expects it might be hard, for example, to get a someone from out of the state or country who is accused of shoplifting from Destiny USA to reappear without the financial incentive of bail.
“Absolutely, that’s something I can live with,” he said.
The statewide DAs’ association, of which Fitzpatrick is a past president, is continuing to oppose the legislation. In a press release Monday, District Attorneys Association of New York President and Albany County DA David Soares was critical of what he described as a rushed, behind-the-scenes way to pass the bill. He said the reforms were poorly thought-out and burdensome.
“... They have set up unrealistic, unworkable requirements that ultimately will fail the very people and communities they were intended to benefit,” Soares said.
Gonzalez, the CCA deputy director, argued the laws are necessary to ensure fairness and consistency.
“You don’t want to have a system that’s based on either the individual ADAs or even the DA that happens to be in the office at the time," she said. “You never want to have something like this be so discretionary.”
Some advocates have urged legislators to eliminate the cash bail system for all crimes in New York. Even in cases of violent felonies, they argue, a defendants’ ability to raise funds for bail should not be the determining factor for their release and the public’s safety.
Singletary, who runs a court watching program with about 50 volunteers, said all defendants who have not yet been convicted of a crime, should be given the assumption of release.
She said she hopes the new law will force judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers to take more consideration into the choice to put someone behind bars.
Singletary estimates she and other court watchers have sat through about 600 arraignments since September as part of the program. One-third of the defendants charged with misdemeanors had cash bail set, she said.
Those same defendants, in 2020, would be presumed to be released under the new law.
“This really will have a big impact on people,” Singletary said.
Sheriff Gene Conway said he would be watching to see how much the new law affected jail population in Onondaga County. In the past, he said, it’s been difficult to gauge how much a reform or law affects the numbers at the Justice Center, because of fluctuations during different times of year and overall decreases in population.
Conway said he doesn’t oppose the reforms but was disappointed that they did not go hand-in-hand with a mental health bill.
He said he sees problems with mental health in the current jail population. Conway said he was disappointed that legislators didn’t devote more resources to mental health services in anticipation of the needs of those people, whether they are behind bars or in the streets.
“How about making an equal effort to expand mental health services?”
Public Affairs Reporter Julie McMahon covers courts, government, education and other issues affecting taxpayers. She can be reached anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-412-1992