The chief of the state Senate on Tuesday roundly rejected Mayor Eric Adams’ push to toughen the state’s bail regulation.
Senate Majority Chief Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) mentioned she doesn't see a compelling cause to vary the regulation when requested about Adams wanting to incorporate a “dangerousness” normal that might give judges discretion to detain a defendant who had a file of prior violent offenses.
The bail reform of 2019 eradicated money bail being mandated for defendants accused of most misdemeanor and “non-violent” felony crimes.
“We don't wish to criminalize poverty,” Stewart-Cousins mentioned, referring to defendants who can’t afford to publish bail, throughout a distant press briefing Tuesday afternoon.
She expressed concern a couple of spike in crime that has plunged New York Metropolis into violence however insisted “there isn't any connection between our bail reform and the nationwide spike in crime that I feel all of us wish to sort out and we must always sort out collectively.”
Stewart-Cousins claimed the info so far exhibits that “98 %” of defendants launched beneath the bail regulation haven't been re-arrested for committing severe crimes pending trial. She was citing a Instances Union evaluation of knowledge launched by the state Workplace of Courtroom Administration.
In a dig on the mayor, she mentioned Adams, a former police captain and Brooklyn state senator, has not personally mentioned the bail problem together with her since taking up Metropolis Corridor.
“The truth that I make myself obtainable just isn't a secret,” Stewart-Cousins mentioned.
However former high Queens prosecutor Jim Quinn rebutted the determine Stewart-Cousins cited, saying that whereas it was “technically true” it was additionally “meaningless and deceptive.”
He mentioned the info Stewart-Cousins talked about included many first-time offenders — these charged with shoplifting, petit larceny, driving whereas beneath the affect, trespassing and different minors costs — who would have been launched by a choose pending trial even earlier than money bail was eradicated.
Quinn’s personal evaluation paints a extra dire image.
He reviewed knowledge of defendants arrested for third-degree housebreaking, a non-violent felony, of a retailer, for instance, from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021.
Earlier than bail reform, judges may have set bail for defendants arrested for third housebreaking — notably these with a previous felony file.
Below the brand new bail regulation, judges are barred from setting bail for third-degree housebreaking.
Throughout the interval reviewed, 2,345 defendants had been arrested for third-degree housebreaking — of whom 2,088 of the accused had both a previous felony conviction or one other pending case.
Of the two,088 defendants with a previous file, 797 had been re-arrested whereas their housebreaking case was pending pre-trial– or 38 %.
Of that complete, 87 had been re-arrested for violent felonies, 338 had been busted for non-violent felonies and 372 had been re-arrested for misdemeanor costs.
“That’s a really huge quantity — particularly should you’re one of many victims,” mentioned Quinn, the previous senior govt assistant within the Queens District Lawyer’s workplace.
Inside that general group, 618 of burglar defendants had been launched beneath what he referred to as “non-monetary situations” resembling supervised launch — and 61 % of these accused had been re-arrested whereas their case was pending, he mentioned.
“Mayor Eric Adams is totally proper about this, about permitting judges to remand defendants who're a hazard to the general public,” Quinn mentioned.
Adams, who will testify on Gov. Hochul’s $62 billion govt funds plan on Wednesday, mentioned he was wanting to make his case in Albany on his crime-fighting and crime prevention package deal, which incorporates tightening the bail regulation.
“I’ve been clear that public security is my high precedence. That’s why I’m hoping to deliver collectively a coalition of federal, state, and native leaders from everywhere in the state and nation to sort out gun violence and get weapons off the streets,” Adams mentioned.
“I’ve spoken to my colleagues in authorities, Majority Chief Stewart-Cousins and Speaker [Carl] Heastie, repeatedly since taking workplace and look ahead to collaborating with them and others within the state Legislature to attain our mutual shared targets of protecting New Yorkers secure, notably from the rising toll of gun crimes. We will all agree that security and justice are usually not mutually unique and should go hand in hand,” he mentioned.
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