NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A8820 Revised 12/13/17
SPONSOR: Quart TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to recognizance
procedures and bail reform; and to repeal certain provisions of such law
relating thereto
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To end cash bail in New York State.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1 is the legislative intent.
Section 2 is definitions.
Section 3 repeals several sections of the criminal procedure law.
Section 4 sets the criteria for a recognizance hearing, including the
charges for which detention is the default.
Section 5 ensures that a recognizance decision will be made no later
than 48 hours after an arrest.
Section 6 describes the motion practice and evidentiary standard used in
recognizance hearings.
Section 7 expands the statutory right to counsel to recognizance hear-
ings.
Section 8 requires the court to set the least restrictive conditions on
any defendants released on their own recognizance.
Section 9 removes bail as a method of enforcement of a securing order.
Section 10 directs the Division of Criminal Justice Services to track
and publish demographic data about the dispositions of recognizance
hearings.
Section 11 repeals article 520 of the criminal procedure law.
Section 12 removes bail from section 10 of article 530 of the criminal
procedure law.
Section 13 removes bail from section 12 of article 530 of the criminal
procedure law.
Section 14 repeals sections 20, 30, 40, 45, 50, 60, 70 and 80 of article
530 of the criminal procedure law.
Section 15 sets the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
The current bail system in New York State has failed New Yorkers. Each
year, thousands of New Yorkers are incarcerated prior to a criminal
trial simply because they cannot afford to pay bail, a situation that is
clearly the criminalization of poverty. Even though the vast majority of
defendants return to court and do not reoffend when released on their
own recognizance, poor New Yorkers who are accused of a crime are often
still incarcerated for the length of their trial or, more often, until
they agree to plead guilty. Regardless of actual guilt, defendants who
are subject to pre-trial detention for as little as 48 hours experience
an increased likelihood of rearrest, in addition to work, custody, hous-
ing and immigration consequences. Additionally, there is no correlation
between being able to afford bail and returning to court and not reof-
fending. There is no public safety rationale for maintaining our current
bail system.
Kalief Browder's story has become central to the fight for bail reform.
Kalief was 16 when he was falsely accused of stealing a backpack. He
spent three years waiting for trial on Rikers Island, mostly in solitary
confinement, because his family couldn't afford $3000 for bail. Eventu-
ally, charges were dropped, but the damage was already done. Two years
after his release, after multiple suicide attempts and several stays in
a hospital psychiatric ward, Kalief Browder hung himself in his family's
apartment.
This bill will end the practice of cash bail in New York State. It
requires every defendant to have a recognizance hearing within 48 hours
of arrest. In these recognizance hearings, both the prosecution and the
defense will present admissible evidence to the court to demonstrate
whether the defendant should be detained during the pre-trial period or
released. After the original determination is made, both the prosecution
and the defense can move to change the decision based on new evidence.
This bill also prohibits the use of risk assessment tools to make pre-
trial detention or release decisions. While these tools have been touted
by some as error-proofing the decision process, replacing a human deci-
sion with an algorithmic one requires careful investigation of the data
that is fed into the algorithm. In the case of a risk assessment tool,
the data includes racially biased criteria, including prior arrests and
convictions, employment history, and family status. As long as racially
biased data is used in a risk assessment tool's algorithm, the decisions
the algorithm renders will also be racially biased.
This bill will provide clear guidance to the court regarding recogni-
zance decisions, while also allowing the court to be responsible to
changes in the situation or new information arising during the pretrial
period. Most importantly, it will finally end the criminalization of
poverty that exists under our current bail system and reassure New York-
ers that in our court system, justice is no longer for sale.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
This is a new bill
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None to the state
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately
