There’s a 24-hour bail kiosk in Queens — if you can find it
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The 24-hour bail kiosk inside the Queens Detention Center. Eagle photos by David Brand.
By David Brand
Making bail at the Queens Criminal Courthouse has become a relatively smooth process after the city implemented new initiatives for facilitating payment, including a 24-hour bail kiosk inside the Queens Detention Center. But first, people paying bail have to find the kiosk — a tricky task complicated by a lack of signage.
Advocates say a few simple signs pointing to the kiosk, which is located in the old jail behind the courthouse, would streamline an uncertain and intimidating process.
To get to the kiosk, visitors must walk down the slight hill of 82nd Avenue, past the courthouse, and make a right at the walkway leading to the dormant jail. There is one sign for QDC, but it is obscured by obstacles depending on where you stand.
“Now that the QDC window is there, it’s a lot easier to coordinate between [Department of Corrections] and the clerk,” said Bronx Freedom Fund Director Elena Weissman. “But it doesn’t serve a purpose if no one knows how to get there.”
There is also a bail payment kiosk outside the courthouse’s arraignment part, but it is not open 24 hours a day. Signs in the stairwell that lead to the arraignment part and outside the courthouse bail window summarize how to pay bail for a defendant, but the information is buried in a large block of text. There is no bail payment information posted in the courtroom.
The lone sign pointing people to QDC.
A 2017 City Council measure mandates that the city “promote the communication of accurate and complete information regarding posting bail” in courthouses. Weissman said the current Queens signage “complies with the letter of the law, but not the spirit.”
“To be compliant with the spirit of law, there should be signs that say, ‘If no one is here at this time, go here or call this number; walk here [to QDC] right next door,” she added.
Marie Ndiaye, supervising attorney at The Legal Aid Society Decarceration Project, was more blunt in her critique.
“The bail reforms enacted in 2017 are designed to ease the burdens associated with paying bail,” Ndiaye said. “DOC’s continued neglect for these laws undermines the intent and spirit of those important reforms.”
The Department of Correction highlighted the reforms that they have put in place since 2017, including the placement of “bail facilitators” inside the courthouses and opening the 24-hour kiosk in Queens. A DOC spokesperson said the agency does not control the size or location of signs in courthouses, but will talk with other city agencies to ensure a smoother payment process.
“We are always looking for ways to improve and expedite the bail payment process and get people back home with their families and working,” said Department of Correction spokesperson Peter Thorne.
