The Nassau County Committee on Criminal Justice Reform has proposed changes to New York’s criminal justice reform legislation.
The legislation passed in April 2019 and went into effect on Jan. 1. It eliminates pretrial detention and monetary bail conditions in an estimated 90 percent of nonviolent criminal cases.
The criminal justice reform panel, commissioned by Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, consists of eight members of law enforcement working in various capacities. They spent the past month writing a series of recommended amendments to the new legislation.
On February 14, Curran said that the committee had completed its final report. Her office confirmed that she sent the report to lawmakers in Albany.
The panel alleged that the new laws remove bail for crimes that the “average person” would consider violent. While they acknowledged that people should not be jailed because they are unable to afford bail, they claimed that removing bail for nonviolent crimes presents issues for both law enforcement and community members.
Justin Harrison, policy counsel for the New York Civil Liberties Union, reported that his organization overall believes the reforms have had positive effects so far.
“More attention should be paid to the people who have been charged with minor and low-level offenses who are not a risk and who are being released and sent home to go back to their jobs and back to their families, as opposed to being held in jail because they can’t afford to pay,” Harrison said.
In the introduction of their report, the committee claimed that the legislation makes it more difficult for those in law enforcement to do their jobs.
They went on to argue that the current nonviolent bail conditions are not always easily surveilled and enforced and that the existing ramifications for violating non-monetary bail conditions are not harsh enough.
Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said that the new laws have already impeded law enforcement. According to Ryder, major crime has increased by 5 percent since cashless bail reform laws went into effect.
Todd Kaminsky, a Democratic state senator and former federal prosecutor from Nassau County, sees law enforcement’s relation to the legislation differently.
“We’ve talked to the people on the front lines, in law enforcement, and we want to give them the tools to do their jobs,” Kaminsky said. “And we believe when you take the wealth out of the system, which this does, you create a fairer system where that can occur.”
The new legislation limits the factors that the court can consider when evaluating bail applications, eliminating factors such as the defendant’s family and community ties.
The panel urged the reversal of this check on the court’s power and suggested that the court should additionally be permitted to consider factors such as the defendant’s character, the defendant’s employment history and the defendant’s physical and mental condition.
They further object to the limitations on judges’ ability to determine bail on a case-by-case basis. The committee argued that judges should have the option to set monetary bail for nonviolent crimes at any level.
The document submitted by the committee also addressed the legislative changes pertaining to discovery.
The committee urged lawmakers to expand the period of time that the police are granted to turn over witness and victim information to defense attorneys.
They also voiced their support for limiting the identifying information of witnesses and victims included in the automatic discovery category.
