NYC Mayor Adams’ call for action on bail reforms pitting progressives against moderate Dems
ALBANY — Mayor Adams’ plan to address gun violence in the city following the death of two NYPD officers is dividing Democrats and sparking renewed debate over recently enacted bail reforms.
The new mayor called on state lawmakers to amend bail laws to make it easier to prosecute gun crimes and give judges more discretion when setting bail.
While willing to sit down with Adams to discuss the issue, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) on Tuesday maintained her stance that reforms “on some level have been working” and called for more time to assess the changes.
“We did not just wake up and say, ‘oh we have to tinker with bail.’ We did the reforms because there was a disparity in treatment,” she said.
The Democratic-led Legislature approved sweeping changes to New York’s bail laws in 2019, limiting pretrial detention for most nonviolent crimes to make the system more equitable. The overhauls were amended in 2020 to make more serious offenses bail-eligible, such as criminally negligent homicide and manslaughter.
Law enforcement groups and Republican lawmakers have hammered Dems over the changes, drawing a direct link to increases in crime.
Stewart-Cousins said more information is needed to assess the situation and noted that recently released data revealed only 2% of those out on bail are rearrested for a violent crime.
Adams specifically called lawmakers to allow judges to consider a defendant’s dangerousness when deciding whether they should be detained, which was not allowed even before the 2019 changes.
During a budget hearing on public safety, Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks said jurists would welcome the change.
“Many judges, if not most of our judges who sit on criminal cases, would like more discretion when making determinations about bail,” he said.
Progressives and criminal justice advocates slammed the idea, arguing that granting more discretion would unfairly target the very same people the overhauls were meant to help and do nothing to address gun violence.
“Jailing more New Yorkers without a trial is not a solution,” said Marvin Mayfield, director of organizing at Center for Community Alternatives. “We already know what unchecked judicial discretion looks like: the mass incarceration of Black and brown New Yorkers.
“Asking judges to predict who is ‘dangerous’ will only worsen racial disparities and undermine our constitutional rights,” he added.
Meanwhile, Moderate Dems voiced support for Adams’ plan and expressed an openness to revisiting bail laws in Albany.
Sen. Todd Kaminsky (D-L.I.), who lost a heated race for Nassau County district attorney last year after Republicans hammered him on bail reform, said he’s open to revisiting the issue.
“I have long believed – and as a prosecutor in the federal criminal justice system practiced this way – that allowing judges to take a defendant’s dangerousness into account when determining bail is logical and appropriate,” Kaminsky said in a statement.
Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island) noted that every other state allows judges to consider dangerousness.
“So we’ve given them a confusing statute, and I think it’s important that be part of the public debate,” she said during Tuesday’s budget hearing.
Adams said he also wants lawmakers in Albany to reverse reforms made to the state’s discovery laws, requiring prosecutors to hand over evidence to defendants in a timely manner.
“We must allow district attorneys to move forward earlier with gun charges,” he said Monday.
Additionally, the mayor said he believes the state’s “raise the age” legislation, which upped the age of criminal responsibility to 18, is being exploited. He believes teens are taking the fall for gun possession charges to help others avoid jail time.
Stewart-Cousins again said she is open to having a conversation with Adams, but firmly defended the criminal justice reforms enacted in Albany in recent years.
“We can’t incarcerate ourselves out of these problems. And so we have to as a society, come together and be rational and look at the data,” she said.
Gov. Hochul has said she is open to amending the state’s bail statutes but made no mention of the issue in her State of the State address earlier this month.
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-L.I.) used Adams’ call to target Hochul as he mounted the primary challenge against the sitting governor.
“Hochul’s lack of action is an abdication of leadership and endangers police and innocent New Yorkers across the State,” Suozzi said as he stood outside the 32nd Precinct in Manhattan. “She has not put out a plan to comprehensively address the crime epidemic; she is silent on critical issues, such as bail reform.”
