Crime stats back my bail push, says Hochul

ALBANY — Gov. Hochul is confident her proposals to tighten New York’s bail laws will make it into the state budget despite pushback from progressives and criminal justice advocates.

The governor unveiled new crime statistics Wednesday as she gathered law enforcement officials and fellow Democrats who support her plan to again amend the state’s contentious 2019 bail reform law, this time by stripping language requiring judges to impose the “least restrictive” conditions to ensure a defendant will return to court.

“It’s common sense, and it will not sacrifice the progress we’ve made in ensuring our overall justice system is more just,” the governor said during a briefing at the state Capitol. “I believe it’s the right thing to do, and I look forward to working with the Legislature on this change.”

Hochul wouldn’t rule out holding up the budget process to get bail changes included in the final fiscal plan as she noted new crime statistics showing that while murders and shootings were down overall in New York in 2022, index crimes, including robbery, rape and assault, were up 10% compared with a year earlier.

Property crimes, such as burglary, larceny and car theft, also increased 24% last year compared with 2021.

“I feel confident we’ll be able to achieve an ontime budget, but if we don’t it’ll be because there are continuing discussions about matters that I consider extremely important,” Hochul said.

The budget deadline is March 31, a week from Friday.

Hochul’s proposal, part of her $227 billion budget blueprint, has faced opposition from some of her fellow Dems as well as advocates who say the change would essentially gut the existing system — meant to ensure poor defendants aren’t jailed simply for being poor.

The governor claims the “least restrictive” clause, which predates the 2019 reforms that limited pretrial detention for most nonviolent crimes, has led to confusion among judges after changes included in last year’s budget directed jurists to weigh a host of other factors when considering bail. The law was amended in 2020 to make more offenses bail-eligible, such as criminally negligent homicide and manslaughter, and tweaked again last year to allow judges to consider previous offenses and whether a gun was involved or an order of protection was violated when setting bail.

Republicans and moderate Democrats, including Mayor Adams, have blamed cashless bail for spikes in violent crime and called for granting judges more discretion despite little evidence linking the two. Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) have both expressed reservations about again amending the law.

Hochul’s fellow Democrats maintain a supermajority in both chambers, which could serve as a roadblock to the governor’s criminal justice platform.

At a rally earlier in the day, some Dem lawmakers made clear they will not back a budget that includes Hochul’s bail changes.

“The Assembly majority firmly rejected further attempts to water down bail reform in our one-house budget proposal released last week,” Assemblywoman Latrice Walker (D-Brooklyn) said. “Why try to fix something that study after study shows is working? People are returning to court. And bail reform has not contributed to an increase in crime.”