Williams dispels bail reform myths
By Nelson A. King
Public Advocate Jumaane D.
Williams was joined on Tuesday
by advocates, including Akeem
Browder, brother of Kalief Browder,
VOCAL-NY, and community
groups to dispel myths and misinformation
about the recentlyenacted
pre-trial reforms.
Williams, the son of Grenadian
immigrants said these laws,
passed in the 2019 legislative
session in Albany, are designed
to eliminate “the privilege gap
between wealthy offenders who
can pay bail and lower-income
New Yorkers forced to remain
incarcerated because of an inability
to pay.”
The group gathered outside
New York County Criminal
Court, within sight of the ongoing
trial for Harvey Weinstein,
who paid $1 million and later $2
million to be released pre-trial.
“This new reform – this critical
progress – has been in effect
for just six days,” Williams said.
“Yet, we see top officials reacting
to headlines and fear mongering,
discussing a potential
watering down or clawing back
of the gains that have been years
in the making.
“In the past, we have seen
officials apologize for being on
the wrong side of history, for
supporting policies that hurt
communities in need such as
stop, question and frisk, the 1994
crime bill and the three strikes
law,” he added. “I urge people to
wait, to see the good these new
laws will accomplish not only
for the benefit of thousands of
low-income New Yorkers but so
that they are not apologizing
for their own opposition to that
progress down the road.”
Williams specifically highlighted
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that less than 12 percent
of New York City’s jail population
has been sentenced to jail
in 2019, and emphasized that
bail is meant not as a punishment
but as an assurance that a
defendant will return to court –
“one that poor New Yorkers are
unable to pay, and so have been
far too often punitively incarcerated
pre-trial.”
As of 2018, the public advocate
noted that 76 percent of
cases already led to release pretrial.
Williams said the new bail
and discovery laws “create more
tools for judges and law enforcement
to monitor people being
released pretrial,” adding that
“all people facing criminal allegations
will now be subject to
a range of possible supervision
requirements.”
The public advocate
announced that his office would
be holding a series of informational
sessions around the city
“to engage the public on the
impact and implementation of
the laws.”
“I spent 18 months at Rikers
and saw the way money bail devastated
the lives of poor people
like me,” said Darryl Herring,
community leader for VOCALNY.
“I was proud to fight for
bail reform in Albany, because
wealth should not determine
one’s freedom.
“We can’t go back to the way
things were,” he added. “We
must embrace the new bail
reform laws, because they make
our state more fair (fairer) and
just for all.”
Tiffany Cabán, public defender
and reform advocate, said she
spent the last seven years in
the halls and courtrooms “of
this building right here watching
increasing numbers of black
and brown and poor New Yorkers
behind bars, their families
devastated, because they simply
could not afford bail, because
they struggled with poverty,
mental health and substance
abuse issues.
“Meanwhile the white, the
wealthy, and the well-connected
got to buy their constitutional
right to the presumption
of innocence,” she said. “We
need to make sure that we are
working together so that none
of these reforms, these really
important reforms, are rolled
back.”
Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams outside New York
County Criminal Court.
Offi ce of Public Advocate Jumaane Williams
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