Jail bailout plan falling short of goals
A much-touted, Kennedybacked mass bailout program appears to be falling way well short of its initial goal.
The Robert F. Kennedy Rights group told volunteers it anticipated to bail out as many as 60 people a day, and set to spring all the eligible teens.
In fact, the charity has barely made a dent in the city’s jail population, records obtained by The News show.
The Kennedy group has spent $1.2 million to bail out 105 detainees since launching in mid-October and only two have had serious issues, it told the New York Times.
“They are just a drop in the water,” said former city Correction Commissioner Martin Horn. “But it demonstrates the validity of the idea that more aggressive bail reform by the city and state would not jeopardize public safety.”
All told, the total number of inmates bailed out of the city’s jails actually went down by 13% in October compared to the same month last year, data reveals. There were 1,152 people bailed out in October 2018, a drop from the 1,328 freed over the same period in 2017, according to the Mayor’s Office for Criminal Justice.
The number of women bailed out in October did increase, likely due to the RFK initiative. There were 134 women bailed out last month, compared to 106 in the same period last year. Figures for this month are not available.
Despite the group’s lofty goals, there are still about 40 teens in the system who are eligible for bail.
RFK and other inmate advocates and criminal justice reformers contend the bail system is used to unfairly keep low-income detainees in jail. They also argue prosecutors also rely on the system to persuade innocent people to plead guilty to get out of jail.
After its major announcement, RFK was flooded with volunteers seeking to assist — and post bail for those in need.
But charity officials were repeatedly forced to turn away volunteers and only uses them for shifts between the 9 a.m. to noon — the latest time they can post bail while being sure that person won’t be let go in the middle of the night.