Letter: Reforms right-sizing our authorized system | Opinion Letters

0
42


As an Upstate New York resident I sometimes get pleasure from your publication, however your current article, “Cayuga County Legislature urges state to amend bail reform legal guidelines” (2/24/2022) is predicated on misunderstandings about New York state’s bail reform laws. This piece propagates the false notion that bail reform equates to judges having no discretion in setting financial bail or holding people accused of committing crimes on pretrial detention. If truth be told, the bail reform measures which have been applied prolong solely to sure misdemeanor, low-level fees and non-violent felonies. The sorts of circumstances which have been impacted by bail reform are fees that, pre-reform, wouldn’t have carried considerably excessive bail quantities — bail quantities {that a} rich particular person might pay simply, whereas a poor particular person would languish for months and even years in pretrial detention, unable to pay that low bail quantity. Put merely, what bail reform did is begin to right-size our authorized system, in order that there usually are not two methods of justice in our state, one for the wealthy and one for the poor.

Whereas I do know that, round right here, this subject is usually considered as an unwelcome Downstate reform infringing on our Upstate neighborhood, the harms of an unjust justice system are hardly restricted to city areas. Within the stunning, close-knit, rural neighborhood I’m proud to name house, so lots of my neighbors have been harmed by the authorized system, too. The impacts of involvement with the authorized system usually result in a troublesome if not unimaginable time securing steady employment to financially help their youngsters, along with the generations of trauma that arrest and incarceration deliver with them. The information exhibits that people accused of against the law who’re held in pretrial detention (attributable to their incapability to pay bail) usually tend to plead responsible, and to longer sentences. That is no matter their guilt or innocence. The information additionally exhibits that, whereas there are a lot of critical societal ills resulting in crime and despair in the course of the pandemic, bail reform is decidedly not their trigger.

There’s rampant misinformation about this hot-button subject, unfold by headline-hungry politicians like NYC Mayor Eric Adams. We do not want extra of that. In an period too usually marred by politics over reality and concern over reality, I’d urge you to look past the noise and attempt for complete reporting on essential points which have very actual impacts for our communities.



Supply hyperlink

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here