NYC expands supervised release ahead of bail reforms
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Eagle file photo by David Brand.
By David Brand
The City Council and at least one local district attorney’s office will expand funding for a supervised release program at courthouses across the five boroughs as the city prepares for new state measures that curtail the use of cash bail for people charged with most nonviolent offenses.
The city’s supervised release initiative, first pioneered in Queens, relies on social workers and case managers who work with defendants to ensure they return to their pretrial court dates. The program “offers a strong, proven solution to the challenges and opportunities provided by the State's bail reform measures,” said Elizabeth Glazer, director of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, which oversees the initiative.
The Queens pilot program was introduced by the Criminal Justice Agency in 2009 and resulted in 87 percent of client defendants returning to court and completing their supervised release requirements, according to the city.
“It’s been an amazing trajectory for supervised release,” said CJA executive director Aubrey Fox. “If you look at the transition from pilot to citywide adaptation to going to scale with this, it’s been a pretty quick process and that’s a testament to the model.”
“We’re building on a program that’s already proven,” Fox continued, adding that CJA will hire several new social workers and peer specialists — formerly incarcerated people, and others with involvement in the justice system — to handle the influx of client-defendants.
New state bail reforms mandate release without bail for some violent felonies, like robbery in the second-degree and burglary in the second-degree. Supervised release means judges have more options than releasing defendants on their own recognize, known as ROR, said Justice Joseph Zayas, administrative judge of Queens Supreme Court, Criminal Term.
“Expanding it is timely given the effect of the bail statute,” Zayas said. “With supervised release, at least you have an assurance that a defendant is going to have numerous reminders of the court date.”
The initiative also helps connect defendants with needed mental health, substance abuse and employment services that can have a major impact on their lives, he added.
Bronx Supervising Judge George Grasso, one of the initiative’s major advocates, told the New York Times that supervised release equates to “having a larger tool kit.”
“Good options, good tools, that didn’t previously exist,” Grasso added. He was not available for comment on Friday.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has pledged $100 million in assets seized from major banks to fund the supervised release expansion. The Council pledged an additional $7 million in the current fiscal year.
In March 2016 and March 2019, a total of 12,262 people were mandated to the supervised release program, according to a report by the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice. That includes 1,950 people charged with felonies and 517 charged with misdemeanors in Queens.
In Queens, 91 percent of defendants were not re-arrested for a felony and 92 percent made all their court appearances during that three-year time period, MOCJ reported.
The city said Friday that total number of defendants enrolled in supervised release has reached nearly 15,500, including 4,200 people this year. Roughly 90 percent made every court appearance, while 92 percent had no felony re-arrests while in the program, the city said Friday. A larger percentage — roughly 20 percent, according to the Times — have been arrested for misdemeanors.
The Queens DA’s Office did not respond to a request for comment Friday, but Queens Executive Assistant District Attorney James Quinn explained the potential consequences of supervised release in an interview with the Times.
“The more expansive the city becomes in taking people into the supervised release program, the more of these defendants are going to be committing crimes when they’re out,” Quinn said. “And that’s our concern.”
