The new criminal justice reforms that passed the New York State Legislature in 2019, including an overhaul of the state’s cash bail system and changes to discovery laws, went into effect in early January. The changes are the most radical to the state’s criminal justice system since the Rockefeller drug laws in the 1970s. They have only satisfied the progressive think tanks and police precincts; town halls and middle-class families are paying the price.
The ability to pay bail in order to avoid pretrial detention is one of the most significantly flawed provisions in criminal statutes across the country. It should be reformed by prohibiting pretrial detention for some nonviolent misdemeanors, with adequate protections designed to ensure a balance between advancing criminal justice reform and protecting public safety.
Yet, New York completely ignores the public safety part. Burglary, arson, the sale of controlled substances and endangering the welfare of children are among the hundreds of criminal offenses for which a violent defendant can now walk free before his or her trial. Judges must have discretion to assign bail to people arrested under the cash bail law in order to enforce the law and ensure the safety of New York’s communities and the families that live in them.
In addition, the new discovery provisions will put more administrative costs on local municipalities across the state, especially on Long Island, and Albany refuses to appropriate the money for it. In order to ensure compliance with the new laws, local police departments will be required to spend more time addressing paperwork and bureaucratic red tape to appease defense lawyers, which takes time away from their most important duty – law enforcement. Albany is placing more demands on our local communities without providing the funding for it. Massive increases in appropriations, particularly for police and district attorney offices, are needed to enforce these new criminal justice laws without accruing deficits and raising property taxes.
If the state legislature wishes to secure broad support for any criminal justice reform, they should talk to their neighbors across the Hudson River. The Garden State passed a cash bail overhaul in 2014, but New Jersey judges were given the discretion to order cash bail based on a risk assessment, mandating pretrial detention if the defendant posed a risk to public safety. Some assemblymen and senators in Albany, including Democrats, are trying to make similar reforms here. They, along with legislative Republicans, prosecutors and law enforcement agencies across the state should be commended for standing up for the rule of law in New York State. Governor Andrew Cuomo, Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins should listen to them instead of following the pied piper of the social justice activists, resisting any so-called people-first changes to the new laws.
Instead of a common sense criminal justice package that corrects wealth disparities in the justice system while protecting public safety, the state legislature has chosen to pass laws designed only to appeal to an emboldened left-wing base. By jeopardizing public safety and making our counties, townships and villages foot the bill, Cuomo, Heastie and Stewart-Cousins are flipping the bird at ordinary New Yorkers. No wonder this is yet another reason why so many of them are packing their bags and moving to Florida.
Greg DeLapi is a sophomore political science major from Babylon, New York.
