Bail rates rose steeply in Queens, report finds
/
A new report details how Queens judges increasingly set bail or remanded defendants before trial. AP file photo by Kathy Willens
By Noah Powelson
More and more Queens judges over the past several years have steered away from granting defendants supervised or early release, instead choosing to set bail against defendants, according to a new report.
A new report from John Jay College showed that while bail setting across the city remained relatively unchanged from 2021 to 2024, Queens judges proved to be the exception, increasingly setting bail or remanding defendants for nearly all case types over the four year stretch.
The report, which comes from the college’s Data Collaborative for Justice, examined how defendants’ chances of early release could be affected depending on which borough they are charged in.
According to the report, the overall rate of bail setting in Queens is mostly in line with how judges across the city make their decisions, but notable deviations in the World’s Borough became apparent in the data.
For nonviolent felonies, Queens was the only borough where judges increasingly remanded defendants or set bail before their trial from 2021 through 2024.
In 2021, Queens judges remanded or set bail for defendants for 17 percent of nonviolent felony cases, the second lowest rate in the city at the time. But in 2024, the bail or remand rate for Queens judges jumped to 25 percent, bringing it in line with Manhattan for the largest rate in the city.
But Manhattan didn’t display the same jump in bail setting rates that Queens does during the same time. According to the data, every borough’s bail or remand rate for nonviolent felonies either decreased or stayed roughly the same from 2021 to 2024 – except Queens.
Similar trends are also seen in misdemeanor cases. Bail was set or defendants were remanded for roughly one percent of Queens misdemeanor cases in 2021, but that rate jumped to five percent in 2024. This increase in bail setting brought Queens, which used to have the lowest misdemeanor bail setting rate at the time, on par with the rest of the city.
“The results confirm that across all charges, Queens saw the most consistent shift of any borough—in the direction of increased bail-setting,” the report reads.
Queens judges also deviated from the rest of the boroughs with the rate at which they set bail for violent felonies, maintaining roughly the same rate while the rest of the city more often turned to supervised release.
From 2021 to 2024, Queens has roughly maintained a 48 percent bail/remand rate for violent felony cases. But in every other borough, that rate was on the decline.
In the Bronx, for example, judges set bail or remanded defendants for 59 percent of violent felony cases in 2021. In 2024, that number dropped to 49 percent.
The sharpest drop was in Staten Island, where judges set bail or remanded defendants for 63 percent of violent felony cases in 2021. But in 2024, their bail/remand rate dropped down to 41 percent.
It’s unclear what, if anything, fueled the change in Queen’s bail or remand rate. Michael Rempel, the executive director at Data Collaborative Justice, said that while Queens’ shift on bail status is noticeable in the data, their current rates still mostly align with their neighbors.
“It's not that [Queens] are on the high end of bail status setting, but on the change,” Rempel said. “Is it some change in the court's culture? Is it some happenstance…we haven't answered that question."
Al Baker, a state spokesperson for the Office of Court Administration, said “the UCS will review the final report.”
The report also showed Queens continued to follow the rest of the city’s tendency to not grant release before trial for felony cases.
Citywide, the number of defendants released on their own recognizance – referred to as ROR – happened less and less. The rate ROR was set varies a bit by borough, but has generally declined from 2021 to 2024.
A different report released by Data Collaborative for Justice last October also revealed that judges regularly do not follow recommendations made in Pretrial Release Assessments, a tool that predicts people's likelihood of returning to court.
From 2021 to 2023, the tool recommended around 80 percent of people accused of violent felonies for ROR, as well as 77 percent of nonviolent felonies and 92 percent of misdemeanors.
City judges, however, granted ROR to vastly fewer people. From 2021 to 2023, judges recommended ROR for 25 percent of those charged with violent felonies, 42 percent of nonviolent felonies and 78 percent of misdemeanors.
Queens was no different. According to the report released on Thursday, Queens saw the largest decreases in ROR-setting rates from 2021 to 2024 – 86 percent to 74 percent for misdemeanors, 50 percent to 34 percent for nonviolent felonies, and 30 percent to 19 percent for violent felonies.
The rate at which defendants were issued supervised release also increased for all charge types during the same time, mostly aligning with trends seen in other boroughs.
"While broad trends are evident across New York City from 2021 to 2024, this report highlights meaningful variation within boroughs," Joanna Weill, the associate director of research at the Data Collaborative for Justice, said in a statement. "This points to the influence of decision-makers, including prosecutors and the judiciary, on outcomes ranging from bail-setting to sentencing."
