New Law Allows Hate Crime Suspects to be Released
By Dan Murphy
The start of the new year 2020 included a new, sweeping criminal justice reform package coming out of the State Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The three major pieces to criminal justice reform in NY state are: Bail reform, discovery reform and speedy trial reform.
The most controversial part of the criminal justice reform package is bail reform, which eliminates cash bail for most defendants to ensure an individual’s wealth is no longer the determining factor for pre-trial detention while awaiting their day in court.
Bail reform, which went into effect Jan. 1, eliminates cash bail for those accused of committing a litany of misdemeanors and felonies, including many nonviolent hate crimes. Many law enforcement groups have come out against bail reform because of the fact that it immediately releases many repeat criminal offenders, or recidivists, from jail immediately.
“Where we allow a judge, for example, to have access to records and say, ‘That person has done crime X three times, gotten arrested, why am I going to put him on the street to do it to a fourth person?” said NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea.
In Westchester, Yonkers PBA President Keith Olson told CBS 2 that the cash bail reform will result “in having more criminals, specifically recidivists – people who commit crimes on a regular basis – on the streets, available to commit more crimes.”
On Jan. 1, 3,880 prisoners were immediately released, based on the bail reform, with an unknown number being released from Westchester.
Last month, District Attorney Anthony Scarpino stated: “I don’t believe anyone should spend time in jail just because they cannot afford to pay bail. That is why I stopped requesting bail almost two years ago on most misdemeanors and in cases in which I would not seek a jail sentence. Based on the new 2020 law, which will end cash bail and pre-trial detention in all but a shortlist of qualifying cases, I have directed my office to stop seeking bail immediately on cases that would not be eligible at the first of the year.
“In approaching our work, we have done so with an understanding that we have an obligation to our victims and to the those accused of crimes to create conditions under which our ADAs can responsibly and ethically engage in the practice of criminal law under the new statutory framework. As we move forward, our mission remains the same – to keep this county safe and to serve justice under the law,” said Scarpino.
The vast majority of criminal justice reform groups in Westchester have welcomed all of the criminal justice reforms. Allison Lake, executive director of Westchester Children’s Association, advocated with many that New York State should provide no new funding for pre-trial implementation as a way to end mass incarceration.
“In Westchester County in 2018, over 1,000 people languished in jail each night. Over 65 percent were pretrial – they had not been convicted but were behind bars because they could not afford bail. This system violated the presumption of innocence, criminalized low-income people, and led to the coercion of plea deals. It also wreaked havoc on the lives of tens of thousands of people each year. Imagine not being able to afford bail. It doesn’t take very long – a day, maybe a week – to lose your job or your home, not much longer to lose your health care, access to education or custody of your children.
“For a young person themselves jailed, advocacy on youth justice by Westchester Children’s Association shows community-based alternatives are far more successful in turning their lives around. We all want safe communities and reducing the criminal justice footprint is part of the equation.
“No sooner did this legislation pass, that we are now seeing prosecutors across the state using the new legislation to demand more funding. DA Scarpino has requested an outlandish 42 additional staff positions. They are asking for this funding to be able to pursue business as usual – to prosecute the same number of illegitimate cases with the same advantage. This is not what our communities need. Rather, DAs should reallocate existing resources to implement this important new legislation. This will require them to rethink how they prosecute, to bring fewer needless cases and to reprioritize and reallocate their resources.
“For bail reform, there will be necessary funding allocations. The new legislation requires that courts provide court reminders. This is important to help make sure people remember they have court and make their court dates! The Department of Motor Vehicles does this to remind drivers when their inspection or registration is due. Additional funding to support transportation to court would also be welcome. However, we do not want to see pre-trial services become a punitive system that makes it hard for people to keep their jobs or disrupt their ability to care for their families.
“As we enter into this crucial county budget season, we urge the county executive to shrink the footprint of the criminal legal system and reinvest in our communities. The dollars that will eventually be saved by not jailing people before they even have their day in court should be reinvested in community prevention programs,” wrote Lake.
During discussions last year on the county budget, Westchester advocates and community members called for county legislators to invest more in communities and not incarceration. Local groups that rallied against incarceration and against funding for incarceration included the Westchester Children’s Association, Community Voices Heard, VOCAL-NY, the New York Civil Liberties Union, WESPAC, Irvington Activists, Westchester for Change, and others.
According to a report by the New York Civil Liberties Union, Westchester had the highest rates of racial disparity with white residents more than two times as likely to be released the same day bail was set as black residents.
“Community Voices Heard members have personally experienced and witnessed the damage to families and communities that has been done by an unjust criminal justice system,” said Afua Atta-Mensah, Esq., executive director of Community Voices Heard. “We applaud the long-overdue legislative reforms to the cash bail system and discovery procedures and call for greater public investments in basic community needs like affordable housing, education, job programs and health care. The Westchester County budget should redirect expenditures previously dedicated to jailing people waiting for trial to these basic community needs in order to strengthen our families and neighborhoods.”
“Westchester for Change has advocated for pre-trial reforms, along with a strong coalition of groups in the region for several years, and we urge the BOL to ensure that funding in this year’s county budget does not maintain the status quo, but rather provides funding for necessary community services and support for underserved populations,” added Susan Van Dolsen, co-organizer of Westchester for Change
Keith Gillman, community leader of VOCAL-NY, said: “Any additional funding that the state distributes needs to be directed into communities, not into continuing the draconian incarceration systems that we have fought so hard to change. Our communities need housing. Our communities need educational programs and drop-in centers. We need funding to expand harm reduction resources. The last thing we need more funding for is incarceration and for prosecutors to abuse their power and be able to create loopholes to continue their history of wrongful prosecution.”
“The presumption of innocence is a cornerstone of our justice system,” added Lucia Hermo, deputy director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Hudson Valley Chapter. “For too long, this was denied to tens of thousands of New Yorkers kept behind bars simply because they couldn’t afford to pay their way out on bail. There is no equal justice if one person is allowed to await trial at home while another is locked up simply because one person had money for bail and another did not. No one should have to risk losing their job, housing, and children just to fight their case.”
Some republican elected officials have opposed the no cash bail policies recently passed in Albany. Chele Farley, a candidate for Congress in the 18th District including northern Westchester and the Hudson Valley, called the new criminal justice reforms “misguided.” Farley, who is running against Congressman Sean Maloney, pointed to the recent death of Rosie Osai, a pedestrian from Stony Point in Rockland County who was killed by a hit-and-run driver.
That driver, Jorge Flores-Villabla, 27, was charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident, a felony, and driving without a license, but was released without bail because of the new bail reforms.
“The tragic death of Rosie Osai on Christmas Eve, and the subsequent release of the illegal alien charged with her death, once again underscores the misguided decision made by Democrats in the State Legislature to eliminate cash bail for dozens of serious crimes,” said Farley. “Local district attorneys and judges are entrusted by voters to keep our communities safe. With the new state legislative session beginning next week, Gov. Cuomo and the legislative leadership must listen to law enforcement and immediately act to prevent others charged with felonies and other serious offenses from being freely released back into our communities.”
Over the past week, a rash of hate crimes has made state lawmakers from Westchester, including State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart -Cousins, re-evaluate the cash bail reform and express a willingness to amend the new law.
Even NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, one of the most progressive elected officials in the state and country, said he will go to Albany to call for some reforms to “protect the rights of judges to have flexibility to hold someone when they present a danger to the community.”
