DE BLASIO WRITES FOR THE NEWS:

How Albany can help us close Rikers

In March, the safest big city in America made a historic decision. With crime at record lows, and fewer people in our jails than we’ve seen in a generation, we committed — for the first time ever — to closing the jails on Rikers Island. We spoke with one voice to say: The mass incarceration crisis did not begin in New York City, but it will end here.

Our plan requires that we bring the number of people in our jails down to 5,000 from around 9,000, so we can replace Rikers with a smaller, safer and fairer system of jails in the boroughs.

We’re taking many steps to make that happen on our own. Thanks to those efforts, this week we announced that we’ll be closing the first jail on Rikers Island this summer.

But to get to our overall goal as quickly, strategically and safely as possible, we need our partners in the State of New York to help.

Gov. Cuomo addressed the issue of Rikers Island in his State of the State speech. He can work with us to take even greater steps than those he outlined. If Albany had already enacted five changes to our current system, at least 1,800 fewer people would be in city jails.

First, we agree with the governor that the state needs to pass dramatic bail reform. We believe judges should determine who should be in and out of jail based on public safety risk rather than one’s ability to pay.

Perversely, in the current system, defendants charged with violent felonies actually make bail at a greater rate than those facing less serious misdemeanor charges.

New York is one of just four states that mostly prohibit judges from considering public safety when making bail decisions. Let’s give judges the ability to factor risk to public safety into their decisions for all cases, while providing tools that aim to reduce any racial biases.

Low-risk defendants — the vast majority — could be released without conditions. Mid-risk defendants should be released with accountable supervision. And the small number of high-risk defendants must still be detained.

Currently, those awaiting trial too often end up behind bars based entirely on their ability to buy freedom. That’s unfair and unsafe. Every year, more than 10,000 people who have bail set at $5,000 or less enter jail for up to a week while their friends and family gather the funds to post the bail and secure their release. Their brief incarceration comes at a huge cost.

Second, the state needs to improve its parole system. After people leave state prison, their parole is supervised by the state. Under current state law, the vast majority of people who violate parole must be detained. The result: On an average day there are more than 600 state prisoners sitting in city jails.

Let’s do the fair thing and allow community supervision when appropriate, while detaining only the high-risk people who have violated parole in one of the three state facilities right here in the five boroughs. That fix alone would allow us to close another jail on Rikers Island right now.

Third, city inmates serving sentences of less than a year should be able to earn a reduced sentence for good behavior, as prisoners in state jails can. Legislation providing this option could mean 175 fewer people in city jails on an average day.

Fourth, we agree with the governor that we need “speedy trial” legislation so that people who are innocent until proven guilty don’t languish in jail for months or years while they wait for the wheels of justice to turn.

Finally, we also need state legislation to allow what’s known as design-build to accelerate building new facilities as fast as possible. This request has stalled in Albany.

Our city is already a model for the rest of the country. For four years, we’ve been investing in neighborhood policing and we have been reducing low-level arrests, expanding alternatives to jail and working with all of the players in the criminal justice system to ensure swift and fair resolution to court cases.

Meanwhile, crime in the city has fallen to historic lows.

Today, the numbers of people in our jails awaiting trial, charged with misdemeanors and in jail for more than a year are all down, but we continue the fight fiercely for a smaller, safer and fairer jail system.

The governor’s proposals are a good start, but together, the city and state can and should go even further — and faster.