AIRMONT – Most people you talk to believe some form of criminal justice reform was needed in New York, but prosecutors and police chiefs do not buy into bail reforms, which allow defendants to be released without bail in the cases of many serious crimes.
Those offenses include manslaughter, sexual offenses and other charges.
Governor Cuomo, in Rockland County on Monday, acknowledged his administration is looking at the changes.
“We are now looking at the effects of those changes and considering other changes. It’s a complicated system; you make one change in one part of the system, it has ramifications in other parts of the system. That’s what we are evaluating now,” he said. “We have an open discussion and we are speaking to all sorts of engaged and informed sources and over the next few weeks, we will be having the conversation with the legislature as to what adjustments do we want to make.”
The argument in favor of bail reform is that people, who cannot afford bail, remain in jail pending their trials, while those who can afford bail, can get out.
Opponents point to cases, including a local crime, where a driver ran down and killed a pedestrian and was released under the new system without bail.
