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BRONX TIMES R 34 EPORTER, JANUARY 3-9, 2020 BTR
Action
Association
BY FRANK VERNUCCIO
Bronx-elected Judge John H. Wilson,
now retired, has exclusively
given us his thoughts on the harmful
changes in New York’s criminal law:
There is no doubt that the majority
of people held on bail while their
criminal charges are pending are
unable to pay the money necessary
to gain their freedom. As of 2016, 1.6
million people were incarcerated in
American federal and state prisons.
Of these, 646,000 were being held in
approximately 3,000 local jails. 70%
of these were being held in pretrial
detention, and of these, their 2015
median reported annual income was
approximately $15,109 prior to incarceration.
Kalief Browder was 17 years old
when he was arrested for felony assault
in New York City. His bail was
set at $3,000, an amount his family
could not pay. After 3 years of incarceration
awaiting trial, the case
brought against him fell apart, and
he was released. Several years later,
at the age of 22, he committed suicide.
His family blamed his death on
the years of abuse and solitary confi
nement he suffered during his incarceration.
Based upon this tragic case, the
City of New York instituted a program
to allow nonviolent, low-level
offenders to be released without posting
bond. However, bail reform proponents
were not satisfi ed with this
process. To address the perceived
injustice of pretrial detention of poor
people, the Bail Project was born.
Begun in 2007 as the Bronx Freedom
Fund, this service has grown
into a nationwide organization that
posts cash bonds on behalf of indigent
persons. Their mission? “To
combat mass incarceration and racial
disparities at the front end of the
system.”
How exactly has this altruistic
plan worked out so far? That depends
upon who you ask.
In general, the effort of judges in
New York to release criminal defendants
without the posting of cash
bail had led to a series of repeat offenders
being given the opportunity
to offend again. For instance, Robert
Scott was arrested earlier this month
in Manhattan for assault on a woman
who was a stranger to him. Two days
after his release, Scott was again arrested
for the attempted rape of a
woman on the Upper West Side.
The Bronx Freedom Fund was involved
in a similar case in 2018. Lynneke
Burke was released on a $1,000
bond paid by the Freedom Fund after
assaulting a stranger. The following
week, Burke was arrested for the
rape of a high school teacher.
Recently, the Bail Project posted
the $5,000 bond of a St. Louis man in
a domestic violence case. The same
night he was released, Samuel Lee
Scott is alleged to have gone to the
home of his wife and killed her. “A
probable cause statement from the
St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Offi ce
said (Scott) threatened that he ‘might
as well fi nish what (he) started since
(she) was going to contact the police.’”
These horror stories point to the
obvious repercussions of posting
bond for people based on a perception
that these offenders are minorities,
caught up on an unfair system, that
punishes them for their racial background
and poverty. In fairness, it
should be pointed out that since instituting
bail reform, “New York
City’s jail population has dropped
from nearly 22,000 in 1991 to about
7,800 this year, making it the least incarcerated
major city in the United
States.” Further, “New York’s lower
reliance on bail hasn’t led to defendants
not showing up in court. The
city’s return-to-court rate is 86 percent
versus about 75 percent nationally.”
But these statistics only tell part
of the story.
As the Night Court judge for
Brooklyn from 2005 to 2010, I made
release and bail determinations for
approximately 60 to 100 arrestees per
night. Depending upon who you ask,
I was either (a) fair (b) biased (c) the
best judge (d) the worst judge – ever
( e) usually right (f) never right. Regardless,
I always used several standards
when I assessed whether or not
someone should be released without
bond.
First and foremost, I looked at
their record. I looked for prior crimes
of the same nature, and I looked for
their history of returning to court. If
I saw someone who had a recent history
of arrests for the same offense,
particularly in a short period of time
(such as turnstile jumping, robbery
or domestic violence) they were far
more likely to have a bond. If someone
had a bench warrant outstanding,
they were usually going to be
held.
In particular, what I was looking
for, and what the Bail Project and
other bond reformers ignore, is recidivism.
Under the criterion used
by those who argue that bond is used
to punish the poor, it does not matter
that the same person has been
repeatedly arrested for the same offense.
It only matters that they return
to court.
Thus, I was excoriated by the defense
every time I set bond on a defendant
who returned to court with a
new arrest, even after I had warned
that same defendant that if he or she
was rearrested, I would set bond.
In those cases, I specifi cally
stated, for the record, that by being
rearrested, the defendant had violated
the bond conditions I had imposed
upon him or her at the time
that I set a new bond leading to his or
her incarceration. If you were to ask
why I did not cite public safety as my
basis, there is a simple reason – New
York does not recognize public safety
as a basis for setting bond on a criminal
defendant, no matter the crime or
strength of the evidence.
New York Criminal Procedure
Law Section 510.30(2) lists the factors
and criterion a court may use
in a discretionary order of release
or the setting of bail. These include
the person’s character, reputation,
habits and mental condition; his employment
or fi nancial resources; his
family ties and length of residence
in the community; his criminal record;
and his previous record of responding
to court appearances. But
no where does the statute authorize
a New York Court to hold a defendant
in the interests of public safety.
Maybe a large number of the defendants
given bonds in criminal
matters can be trusted to return to
court. But can they be trusted to
lead law-abiding lives, and not come
back with a new and sometimes more
serious arrest? Until the issues of
recidivism and public safety are addressed,
groups like the Bail Project
will continue to free dangerous individuals,
allowing them to prey on the
public, while justifying their actions
with the limited standards they use
to achieve a false sense of “social justice.”
MetroCard
scheduled stop
Assemblyman Michael Benedetto,
in conjunction with Councilman
Mark Gjonaj, announces that
the MetroCard Mobile Van will be
parked at the curb in front of the assemblyman’s
offi ce located at 3602
E. Tremont Avenue, on Friday, January
10, between the hours of 1 to 3
p.m.
The MetroCard Mobile Van enables:
• Senior citizens 65 years of age
or older to apply for Reduced-Fare
MetroCard and receive a temporary
card on the spot (Bring proof of age
such as a Medicare card and valid
photo identifi cation);
• People with disabilities that
qualify, and who present a Medicare
card and valid photo ID such
as a driver’s license to apply for Reduced
Fare MetroCard;
• Daily riders to add money to
their Reduced-Fare MetroCard; and
• Everyone to get all MetroCard
questions answered.
For more information, call Benedetto’s
offi ce at (718) 892-2235
/WheelsForWishes.org