KATHY TOUTS BAIL-REFORM FIX
Aims to give judges more discretion as she pushes $227B budget
ALBANY — Gov. Hochul touted budget proposals on Tuesday to boost public safety — part of her pitch to fellow Democrats to amend New York’s controversial bail reforms.
She focused on declining crime rates in upstate Rochester, specifically shootings and murders, while highlighting several aspects of the $227 billion budget blueprint she unveiled last month.
Chief among her goals is to once again revisit the state’s bail laws.
Hochul has put forth a plan that would amend the 2019 bail reform legislation — which eliminated cash bail and mandated release for most misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies — by stripping language requiring judges to impose the “least restrictive” conditions to ensure a defendant will return to court.
“We have this inconsistency in the law,” the governor said during Tuesday’s event at the Boys &
Girls Clubs of Rochester. “Confusion is understandable, and I want to make sure that we remove that one standard, give them criteria to look at.
“Removing the ‘least restrictive’ means standard for bail-eligible cases, which are the serious violent offenses, is what we’re going to be looking for,” she added.
State sen. Jeremy Cooney (D-Rochester) backed her public safety plans, which have been met with much less enthusiasm by many of his colleagues in the Legislature.
“We can’t let data hide the realities of fear,” Cooney said alongside Hochul, noting that while crime has fallen in recent months, many are still afraid of becoming a victim. “In the neighborhoods that I represent, public safety is not a data point — it’s a feeling.”
Bail has remained a lightning rod of controversy since the 2019 changes were enacted. Republicans and moderate Dems including Mayor Adams have blamed rising crime on cashless bail.
Proponents of bail reform have repeatedly pointed out a lack of data showing any correlation between the system and any increase in violent incidents.
Still, the Dem-led Legislature has twice amended the law, including last year when Hochul pushed to grant judges more discretion and make more crimes bail-eligible.
It’s unclear if lawmakers have the appetite to roll back the law any further, especially given how many view Hochul’s proposal as an attempt to gut the current system.
A pair of Rochester City Council members slammed her bail plan.
“For this Governor to come to Rochester — one of our nation’s poorest cities — and claim that bail reform allows people to shoot each other without consequences is just insulting,” Kim Smith and Stanley Martin said in a Tuesday statement.
“The reality is Gov. Hochul’s budget proposal fails to make the investments and policy changes that communities across our state need to be safe,” they added.
Hochul’s budget proposal includes boosting spending for programs “designed to prevent and reduce gun violence” to the tune of $337 million. Another $31.4 million is for alternatives to incarceration programs, plus $20 million for pretrial services.
Hochul’s plan would increase funding for prosecutors, allotting $52 million in assistance for all 62 district attorneys’ offices across the state.
Another $40 million is earmarked to support discovery reform implementation, something prosecutors have pushed for since the 2019 reforms included changes meant to ensure evidence is shared with defense attorneys in time for defendants to make informed plea bargain decisions.
The Senate and Assembly are currently drafting budget proposals as negotiations continue ahead of the state’s April 1 fiscal deadline.