Back in April 2019 I wrote that one of the problems bringing about the need for bail reform is that the family breadwinner was usually the one who was put in jail without charges or trial, leaving his family with no financial support for a very long time. There was a plan at that time to educate these people during their incarceration, things like reading and speaking English – necessary job skills. But then as the result of bail reform they were released from jail in a matter of days, and the plan had to be dropped. The result was they were back in jail more often, again leaving their families with no financial support.
Another problem was that bail reform reduced the ability of jails to enroll inmates in drug rehabilitation programs, a 30-day period to produce a drug-free inmate upon his release.
And the mentally ill are caught up in all of this. My suggestion at the time – a hard choice – was to keep inmates in jail until they finished their programs. Today I would add that funding needs to be budgeted for programs that would help to keep them out of jail.
On January 1, 2020 the State of New York implemented its bail reform plan. Everyone agreed that it was much needed, but there are problems with it, specifically, the need to predict “dangerousness” based upon the stories in the news about a few people who had committed violent crimes after getting out on bail. The counterargument is that these stories are being circulated by bail bondsmen who make their money by selling bail bonds and are now losing money.
This situation has some similarity to something years ago in New York City while Scott Stringer was Comptroller. He decided at that time to no longer invest City money into private prisons because it was a bad investment and “immoral” because the prison needed to get inmates from somewhere so they could get their money. So, they would press for longer sentences or get them right off the street.
My opinion is that “dangerousness” is a valid point, but I do not think that it is insurmountable. My suggestion to all of this now is that when setting bail, the court should have criminal records available to it regarding the individual. These should be considered when setting bail. If he is unknown to the court, he should be adjudged according to the severity of his crime.