Kirsten: End cash bail for nonviolent detainees

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand feels the historic criminal justice reform bill headed for a vote in the Senate this week is a step in the right direction — but doesn’t go far enough.

“This must be a beginning and not an end toward ending the discrimination that too many Americans face and experience on a daily basis,” she said at a press conference Sunday.

“The bill did not take on one of the most fundamentally unfair problems in our criminal justice system — it does nothing to fix the cash-bail system.”

On Monday the Senate will vote on the First Step Act, a bipartisan bill that aims to overhaul the country’s harsh sentencing laws and allow judges more discretion when sentencing nonviolent offenders.

The bill also aims to improve rehabilitation programs for exconvicts reentering society.

“The cash-bail system in our country is a disaster, and it is deeply discriminatory,” Gillibrand (photo) said. “If you’ve been accused of a crime — just accused — you might have to wait in jail for months or even longer before you have your trial to tell your side of the story.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton appeared with Gillibrand to blast the cash-bail system.

“When we look at the fact that half of the pretrial detainees in this country are black and Latino, this is a civil rights issue,” he said. “The bond industry is an absolutely horrendous idea to make profit off detaining people who could be innocent and who suffer incarceration.”

President Trump announced his support for the First Step Act last month.

“Criminal justice reform is something people have been working on for many years,” he said. “It looks like it is going to be passing in a bipartisan way.”