Bail reform changes not warranted
Let’s get it straight. The original “catch and release” is the requirement of reasonable bail in the Constitution.
Bail means people get out of jail. That is catch and release. People with the money for bail or for a bail bond don’t have to lose their jobs and lose their ability to take care of their families while they are rotting in jail awaiting trial. Bail reform merely ended discrimination against poor people so the poor don’t have to lose their jobs, their ability to care for their families, and any chance at a decent self-respecting life.
Frankly, I am disgusted at politicians who single out for their venom a measure aimed at extending to the poor the same protections that people with some cash get. Those who are against letting people out should then, by all means, try to amend the Constitution and we can live in the same brutal way that people live in the most brutal dictatorships, with no way to protect themselves — a problem the poor know all too well. Stephen E. Gottlieb
Albany Professor Emeritus, Albany
Law School