Governor's Proposal To Modify Bail Law

 The changes to the bail reform law, proposed by Governor Kathy Hochul, are sensible and needed and will preserve the benefits of bail reform while remedying the law's unintended downside.

As a retired Criminal Court judge, former prosecutor and charter participant in the Manhattan Bail Project (which promoted pretrial release without bail), I have long denounced the misuse of bail to incarcerate poor people, more often persons of color, and have advocated and successfully utilized pretrial release without bail in most cases.

However, New York is alone, and wrong, in limiting the factors a judge may consider in weighing bail decisions to a single criterion, the likelihood of a released defendant's return to court when required. By denying judges the discretion to hold persons whose release would pose a danger to the community by reason of propensity for violence, serious mental issues and repeated acts of violence, with or without weapons, the courts are stripped of an essential, judicial power and the public is exposed to unacceptable and unnecessary risk.

The governor's proposal not only addresses identified shortcomings in existing law; it makes welcome additions to funding for pretrial, mental health and employment services, so that persons held can be sooner released safely and keep those persons already released from reoffending.