Photo Courtesy of NY Senate Media Services

With Nassau County District Attorney (DA) Madeline Singas vacating her seat to take a judgeship on the New York Court of Appeals a few months ago, Nassau County voters will be heading to the polls to elect our legislature and a new DA. With an array of prosecutorial powers, the DA is a powerful position with the ability to shape the Nassau County criminal justice system.

It appears that Todd Kaminsky, current State Senator and former prosecutor, is the favorite to win. But, of course, run-of-the-mill Republican candidate Anne Donnelly isn’t going down without a fight.

The GOP campaign aims to win by generating hysteria around the New York State bail reform law, which was passed in early 2020. They allege that this law has put countless numbers of violent criminals back on the street, driving the message home by sending mailers  cherry-picked stories describing violent criminals who were released. Their messaging is clear: If you don’t want child-raping murderers on the street, then you’d better vote for our Republican!

Let’s return to reality, shall we? First, this isn’t Kaminsky’s law. The law was passed by the New York Legislature and signed by the Governor as part of the budget process in 2019 and took effect in January 2020. This can’t possibly be Todd Kaminsky’s bill because it was passed by the entire legislature.

Second, Kaminsky is not responsible for the criminals mentioned being released. The judge oversees the bail period, using their discretion to decide who will show up to a court date. You may not agree with the decisions these judges made, but Todd “The Boogeyman” Kaminsky was not in any way involved in these decisions.

Perhaps we need to go over why New York reformed its bail laws in the first place. Defendants post bail to ensure the court they will attend their hearings, after which the bail amount is returned. If you can’t post bail, you’re held in jail until your court date, in which time you may lose your job, get evicted from your home and lose access to public programs that mandate attendance.

It is no surprise that cash bail ends up hurting poor, oftentimes Black and brown members of society. Already at risk for being unjustly arrested, these individuals often cannot post bail and as a result agree to a harsher plea deal, regardless of whether they committed any crime simply to avoid jail time.

The New York bail reform is meant to alleviate this problem by eliminating bail requirements for non-violent minor crimes. If you skip court, you can still be arrested on the spot with a warrant. You can still be made to wear an ankle bracelet under the law to ensure you show up, and if you commit a violent crime, posting bail and jail time are still options.

It doesn’t mean there’s going to be more crime. It just means that poor people are not being punished as much for non-violent, petty crimes. Likewise, bail does not mean that violent criminals are brought to justice, it just means rich people who can post bail get a pass. 

We should wake up to the fact that in America, there are no crimes if you’re rich. Instead of judging others as “good guys” or “bad guys” from our lofty perches, why don’t we build a society where we look out for each other? If we had a community that housed the homeless, fed the poor and aided the sick, crime would plummet because the economic factors pushing people to do crime would vanish.

The only thing the Republicans want to do is invent more criminals so they can jail them. You cannot jail your way out of society’s problems.

That’s why Nassau County needs Kaminsky as our District Attorney. He may not be perfect, but his support for cashless bail and his previous work taking down corrupt bigwigs demonstrates his understanding that we must have a more just criminal justice system. Although fighting poverty is the job of the legislative branch, not the DA,Todd Kaminsky will keep us safer than any Republican DA.