Don’t blame bail reform
Since New York implemented bail reform earlier this year, fearmongering critics have been eager to link its changes to heinous crimes.
The latest example involves the heartbreaking killing of 11-year-old Ayshawn Davis in a drive-by shooting Sept. 13 in Troy. Critics of bail reform seized on a false report by an Albanyarea television station claiming the suspect, Jahquay E. Brown, had been jailed on robbery and weapons charges but was released because of the bail law.
The reaction on social media was swift and predictably furious. Rensselaer County Executive Steve Mclaughlin, for example, was among those to declare that Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Democrats were directly responsible for Ayshawn’s death. “The murder of that young man is on you,” the Republican tweeted.
No, it isn’t. As the Times Union’s Brendan Lyons reported, Mr. Brown’s release had nothing to do with bail reform and instead resulted from an egregious mistake made by Shane Hug, a special prosecutor appointed to the case, who failed to obtain an indictment within the required 45 days of arrest.
We will say this again: Bail reform was the right thing to do. It fixed an unjust system that kept many defendants in jail while wealthier defendants accused of the very same crime could be released. The reform ended this system for most misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies.
That doesn’t mean the law was perfect as passed. Indeed, the Legislature amended it in April, allowing judges to impose bail for additional crimes. Yet given the alarming rise in violent crime being experienced in Troy, Albany and other cities, the reform remains an easy target for Republicans looking for a campaign issue in a legislative election year.
Lawmakers shouldn’t hesitate to tweak bail reform again, especially if it proves to be responsible for crime spikes. Yet to date, there’s little empirical evidence that bail reform is responsible for what’s happening. That violent crime has risen in cities across the country suggests the problem has little to do with changes specific to New York.
A more likely explanation for the crime spike is the coronavirus pandemic. The virus and its effect on the economy have left millions of people without work, no doubt stoking anger, frustration and desperation. It also halted the normal operation of the criminal justice system in much of the country. In Albany County, for example, there was no grand jury impaneled from roughly March until July.
That helps to explain why Mr. Hug didn’t secure an indictment of Mr. Brown, leading his attorney to file a motion seeking his client's release. Under the rules of a pandemic executive order issued by Gov. Cuomo, Mr. Hug could have requested a stay on the motion and kept Mr. Brown in jail, but apparently did not.
It would be unjust to blame Mr. Hug for the death of Ayshawn Davis. Jahquay Brown is accused of that crime. But Mr. Brown, who has a lengthy criminal history, could have and should have been kept in jail. That he wasn’t was an awful error. But it wasn’t the fault of bail reform.