‘ANKLES’ BROKEN BY CITY REFORM
Monitoring debacle
Despite having months to prepare, City Hall failed to put in place a program that could give back to judges a powerful tool to keep tabs on potentially violent defendants released under the state’s new bail reform law.
The controversial law change removes the imposition of cash bail as an option for judges in most misdemeanors and other nonviolent crimes.
But it also allows judges to order that those charged with felonies or in connection with domestic violence and sex-related cases be tracked with electronic ankle monitors to ensure they return to court.
Unlike the pre-bail reform rules, though, which left bail bondsmen in charge of the GPS monitoring, the new law mandates that only a governmental agency or nonprofit can handle the placement and tracking of the devices.
But the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice failed to get such a program launched by Jan. 1, despite the measure being passed by the Albany legislature eight months earlier.
And MOCJ officials admitted Friday they still have no set timetable for when the system will come online — a ball drop that left Manhattan prosecutors and judges disgusted.
“I feel sick,” said one Manhattan judge, who said he wished he still could require ankle bracelets for release and added, “I’m releasing defendants who are dangers to their community.”
Said a Manhattan prosecutor, “I think the legislature thought they were freeing poor minorities, but instead they handed a gift to a predominantly wealthy elite.”
It has even affected the highestprofile trial in New York — pushing the judge in the Harvey Weinstein rape trial to change the conditions of his release on Dec. 11.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice James Burke removed the ankle requirement but hiked Weinstein’s bond to $2 million. That prompted Weinstein’s bail bondsman, Ira Judelson, to require that the pervy media mogul keep the tracker as a condition of his underwriting the hefty sum keeping him free.
The Post identified another four Manhattan felony criminal court cases where judges or prosecutors sought ankle monitors — only to be thwarted by City Hall delays.
In two, judges ordered defendants to wear the trackers as soon as they become available.
Before bail reform, judges could order ankle monitors in cases where there was concern a defendant might flee despite posting bail.
The ankle monitors were administered by bail bondsmen — who charged as much as $10,000 a year to the defendant.
But the overhaul package passed last April took the operation of the devices away from the for-profit companies that traditionally provided the service.
City Hall would only say that officials are “moving ahead” with the electric monitoring program and are “seeking to roll this out on the fastest timeline possible.”