Sheriff: Law may halve jail population A new state bail reform law draws criticism from Ulster County’s top prosecutor and some police officials
KINGSTON, N.Y. >> Local law enforcement will begin to feel the effect of statewide bail reform on Jan. 1.
The change, signed into law early this year by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, will prevent judges from imposing bail in a majority of cases, keeping many individuals charged with non-violent crimes out of jail until they are tried and convicted.
Whether or not that’s a good thing is a matter of opinion.
As a result of the new law, come Jan. 1, Ulster County Sheriff Juan Figueroa said recently, the population of the Ulster County Jail could initially drop by as much as 50 percent as judges are mandated to issue appearance tickets for misdemeanors and non-violent felonies. He said the fiscal impact of the new law is yet to be seen and will not be known fully until after at least a year of implementation. For starters, the sheriff said, defendants who are currently held in lieu of bail and then sentenced to time served, are likely to be released. But those same defendants will later be sentenced to jail time if they are convicted, he said.
In a recent press release, Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright, an outspoken opponent of bail reform who is stepping down at the end of 2019 after 12 years in office, warned that, effective Jan. 1, “defendants charged with, among other
things, residential burglary, almost all drug sale and possession offenses, some homicides, assaults resulting from drunk driving collisions, many weapons offenses, grand larceny, bribery involving public officials, and many charges involving child pornography, among other charges, will all be released from custody, without the court even being able to consider bail.”
A list included with Carnright’s press release, says additional crimes for which accused individuals will be set free without bail before trial are aggravated vehicular homicide, criminally negligent homicide and manslaughter in the second degree.
But exceptions, according
to Figueroa, will be made for defendants with a “documented history of failing to appear” in court. According to the sheriff, local courts will “retain the discretion to set bail, or remand without bail” when circumstances call for it.
Figueroa said the new law allows judges to set bail for “non-qualifying crimes” in cases of witness tampering or intimidation, when a person charged with a felony commits any other crime and when an order of protection is violated.
Carnright disagreed, writing that a defendant’s “release will turn only on the type of charge, without any consideration of the defendant’s previous criminal record, his previous record of making court appearances, or his likelihood of committing further crimes while out of custody.”
Figueroa, who took office in January and ran
as a supporter of bail reform and restorative justice, said he supports “the premise of common sense bail reform,” but acknowledged that some criminals will take advantage of the system.
“We do not live in a police state,” the sheriff said, describing what he sees as the unfairness of a system in which “an indigent person has to stay in jail while a person with money walks out.”
Still, Figueroa said the new law “will need some adjusting as time goes on.”
“If certain parts of the law don’t work then government has to change it. … The purpose of the law is to protect the victim,” the sheriff said.
The sheriff said judges will be able to set bail for individuals who are considered a “flight risk.”
Figueroa said qualifying offenses for which bail
could be set also include violent felonies, excluding burglary and robbery, witness intimidation, witness tampering, certain sex offenses, conspiracy to commit murder, money laundering in support of terrorism or terrorism, and violations of certain orders of protection.
Mandated electronic monitoring is also permissible under the new law, the sheriff said.
In an opinion piece for the Freeman, Saugerties Police Chief Joseph Sinagra, also an outspoken opponent of bail reform, wrote that the new law “will dangerously risk the security of our communities” and “places unfair, and unfunded mandates upon our local governments.”
There are “disparities” in the current system that “required revising,” Sinagra wrote, but the law as written
goes too far.
“We must ask ourselves if this is what ‘bail reform’ was intended to achieve; more rights for criminals and less rights and protections for honest citizens and victims of crime?” Sinagra wrote.
Bail reform has also become an issue in the race for district attorney.
At a recent candidate’s debate held at the Freeman’s Kingston office, the two men running to be the county’s next chief prosecutor differed on bail reform.
Republican Michael J. Kavanagh, the county’s chief assistant district attorney, and Democrat David Clegg are vying to succeed Carnright.
Kavanagh said he is concerned that when bail reform takes effect in January, it could hinder prosecutors’ ability to get offenders, particularly addicts,
into drug treatment and other programs currently available at the jail because being put in jail on bail for nonviolent crimes will no longer be an option.
Clegg said he supports programs that would put drug offenders into rehabilitation without forcing them to admit a crime as a condition of receiving treatment.
Clegg agreed, however, with Kavanagh’s suggestion that bail can be used as a tool toward recovery and said the county needs programs that would enable individuals to access rehabilitation programs without having to go through the criminal justice system.
Both men said they support some form of bail reform, though Kavanagh said the current state law has the potential to allow dangerous criminals to be put back on the street.