When it comes to assessing New York’s reformed bail laws, everyone from the NYPD to mayoral candidates to Gov. Cuomo has their own version of the truth. In Nassau County, Republican district attorney candidate Anne Donnelly is even smearing her rival, state Sen. Todd Kaminsky — who helped lead the charge to amend the reform last year — by falsely claiming that those accused of criminally negligent homicide and manslaughter “are released.”
This debate should turn on facts, not falsehoods and fearmongering. To that end, the state court system has a trove of data that gets closer to being able to honestly assess the changes after a year. Closer but no cigar, as frustrating gaps still prevent a thorough analysis.
What’s in the data dump: How many of those accused of various crimes wound up being released on their own recognizance, released with supervision, had bail set or were remanded, and who then went on be arrested again. Between mid-2020 and mid-2021, for instance, 4,577 people were arraigned for robbery; of those, 2,137 had bail set, 1,397 were released on their own recognizance, 775 were released with nonmonetary conditions and 222 were remanded, or held without bail. Thirty percent of those released on their own recognizance were rearrested while awaiting trial, as were 38% of those released with nonmonetary conditions — compared to just 16.5% of those who had bail set.
The answers raise more questions. How many of these charges were for specific types of robbery deemed ineligible for bail in the new laws? How many of those who had bail set actually made bail? And what were the rearrests for, violent or petty crimes? All matter, mightily.
Nor does the data have a baseline enabling comparison of these 12 months, from 2020 to 2021, to other periods.
We opposed the bail reforms. We would rather nix money-based pretrial detention and grant judges discretion to remand people who present a risk to the public. But we want conclusions based on relevant facts. Where are they?
