Hochul pitches bail changes during State of the State speech
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By Jacob Kaye
Governor Kathy Hochul laid out a number of changes she wants to again make to the state’s bail laws during her first State of the State speech after being elected to her first full four-year term.
Speaking to the state’s legislature in the New York State Capitol in Albany on Tuesday, Hochul dedicated a significant portion of her speech to a theme that came to define her 2022 race for governor against Republican Lee Zeldin – crime and public safety.
Hochul outlined a number of efforts she, the legislature and other officials have made in the past year to clamp down on the rising crime rate and instances of gun violence, which have decreased in the city in the past year.
“The pandemic caused so much havoc in our State, country, and society itself and it had a profound effect on public safety,” Hochul said. “The pervasive unease that wormed its way into our day-to-day lives, the social isolation and the economic distress, led to a nationwide rise in crime and gun violence that we are now combatting.”
As part of her solution for combating crime, Hochul honed in on a number of changes she said she wants made to the state’s bail laws, which were reformed in 2019 and which have been tweaked in nearly every year that’s followed, including during Hochul’s first full year in office in 2022.
Though they were controversial before being passed, the reforms have only remained a contentious topic in the years that have followed. Criminal justice reform advocates and progressive lawmakers have maintained that the intent of the laws – to eliminate economic and racial discrimination from bail decisions – has held true since the laws’ implementation, and that data has not shown the reforms have led to increases in crime. Meanwhile, conservatives and some moderate Democrats have pointed to a number of cases where defendants released without bail have gone on to commit other crimes.
“As with so much in politics today, the conversation quickly turns into a debate between two opposing camps with no common ground,” Hochul said on Tuesday. “But I believe there are several things most people can agree upon.”
“First, the size of someone’s bank account should not determine whether they sit in jail, or return home, before they have even been convicted of a crime,” she added. “That was the goal of bail reform. It was a righteous one, and I stand by it. Second, bail reform is not the primary driver of a national crime wave created by a convergence of factors, including the pandemic. And third, that the bail reform law as written now leaves room for improvement.”
As she did last year, Hochul asked members of the State Senate and Assembly to discuss making changes to the laws during the state’s upcoming budget negotiations.
Though she refrained from offering specific changes to the bail laws during her speech, a policy platform released Tuesday suggests that the governor is interested in eliminating the “least restrictive” means clause, which existed in New York State prior the passage of the reforms.
According to the governor, the clause has caused confusion among judges who have released defendants without the knowledge that they could have set bail. The change, she said, would allow judges to have more discretion in their decisions to set or not set bail.
“For serious crimes (those that remain eligible for bail), Governor Hochul believes the ‘least restrictive’ standard should be eliminated,” the policy platform released Tuesday reads. “Data from before and after the enactment of bail reform actually shows that eliminating the “least restrictive” standard for bail eligible offenses — while retaining it for less serious crimes — will not increase the overall rate of pretrial incarceration.”
“Of course, we also must understand that changing our bail law will not automatically bring down crime,” the proposal continues. “What it will do is make it crystal clear that judges do, in fact, have the discretion necessary to protect the safety of New Yorkers.”
The announcement was met with immediate pushback from advocates on Tuesday.
“State lawmakers must resist the Governor’s efforts to further rollback bail reforms, and instead demand she follow their lead if she truly cares about public safety,” said Jawanza Williams, the director of organizing with VOCAL-NY. “We need state leadership to invest deeply in housing and healthcare, rather than in racist and ineffective interventions like prisons and jails.”
“We will continue to stand by the reforms made and hold the line against political maneuvering that gives into conservative messaging – the same messaging that almost cost Governor Hochul the governorship,” Williams added.
Queens City Councilmember Jim Gennaro celebrated the announcement. In June of last year, Gennaro – who represents portions of Kew Gardens Hills, Pomonok, Electchester, Fresh Meadows, Hillcrest, Jamaica Estates, Briarwood, Parkway Village, Jamaica Hills and Jamaica – condemned the governor for what he claimed was a lack of action surrounding the reforms.
“After years of rising crime across New York since bail reform was enacted, Gov. Kathy Hochul has finally acknowledged today that the way the bail reform law is written ‘leaves room for improvement,’” Gennaro said in a statement Tuesday. “That is a gross understatement, but I will take what I can get from our heretofore crime-denying governor.”
The lawmaker said that the governor should go further and consider enacting a dangerousness standard, which would allow judges to set bail if they felt a defendant created a public safety risk.
“This should not be a hard sell to the State Legislature,” he said. “We only need your leadership to make this happen.”
Last year’s state budget was delayed by more than a week after Hochul attempted to push through a number of reforms to the reforms. Included among the changes was a provision that expanded the number of crimes that could be considered for bail, a rule that would allow judges to be able to consider bail for people with repeat offenses, regardless of the crime.
The most recent data from the Department of Criminal Justice Services show that the failure to appear rate in New York State has decreased in the years since the laws were enacted. Additionally, rearrests for individuals released on their own recognizance — without bail while a case is pending — were down two percent in 2021 when compared to 2019, according to the agency. Total rearrests in New York City were about 19 percent and increased to 20 percent from January 2019 to December 2021.
