Legislators need to revise new criminal justice reforms
As I was talking with a coworker earlier this week about a story he was working on related to the new bail reform laws in New York, I could not believe the criminal justice reforms that are slated to go into effect next year. In April, New York passed a series of those reforms aimed at curtailing the use of cash bail, pretrial detention, overhauling rules surrounding the sharing of evidence and strengthening a defendant’s right to a speedy trial. Advocates argue the law — which goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2020 — will create a fairer criminal justice system for those living in poverty who are accused of most misdemeanor and non-violent felony offenses. Until I read the story that ran in Tuesday’s edition of The Record, I did not actually realize the full list of crimes that would now be eligible for defendants to be released from custody without bail. I can understand how some of the offenses could be on the list such as first-degree aggravated harassment, but most of the other offenses don’t make sense to let people out of custody right after being arrested and processed at the police station.
I can’t fathom how someone charged of robbery, burglary, manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, aggravated vehicular homicide, possession of weapons, failure to register as a sex offender, making a terroristic threat and so many other offenses could be included in the criminal justice reform.
Rensselaer County District Attorney Mary Pat Donnelly stated “These reforms will not promote justice in Rensselaer County.” Other local elected officials also disagreed with reform and believe it is going to cause challenges in their communities.
I know many people also did not agree with the state deciding to do away with releasing mugshots of defendants, which also does not make much sense to me.
If someone is charged with a serious crime such as murder, weapon possession or a sex offender charge, I think the public has a right to put a face to the name of the defendant.
How is the public supposed to know what a potential sex offender looks like just by reading their name in a news story? At least with a mugshot, they would know what that person looks like in case they saw him or her near children or somewhere else that they should not be.
I understand some people who are charged and arrested could be innocent and if they did not have the funds to be released from jail on bail, they could potentially be sitting in jail for a length of time for a crime that may have not committed. However, if police have a solid case and evidence to charge that person with whatever crime, than there really could be a good chance that they did commit that crime.
I think the state Legislature should look to tweak the bail reforms and really think about removing some of the offenses from the bail reform list, and it seems that some legislators such as Assemblyman John McDonald III do have some concerns with some of the listed crimes, so hopefully they do what they can to make adjustments to the list. Nick on the Record appears in print every Wednesday. Nicholas Buonanno is the assistant senior editor for The Record and can be reached at nbuonanno@ medianewsgroup.com.