BY DONNA ROGERS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
BAIL REFORM: Supporters & Critics reform is sweeping the nation. A new bail law went into effect on January 1 in New York. It will eliminate pretrial detention and cash bail as an option in an estimated 90 percent of arrests. It joins its neighbor New Jersey, which overhauled its bail system in 2017, and enjoys success in its reform. A recent analysis of the latter, according to the independent law and policy organization Brennan Center, found a significant reduction in crime rates and overall arrests, as well as a much lower rate of pretrial detention. On the West coast, bail reform hit a bump in 2018. SB 10, which was designed to replace the state's cash bail system with risk assessments, would have gone into effect in 2019, but it was contested by bail bondsmen, among others. It has been replaced by a Risk Assessments Referendum that is on the ballot as a veto referendum on November 3, 2020. The shiny Big Apple law is facing backlash and bruising just weeks after it went into effect. Prosecutors and police chiefs are demanding rollbacks as a public opinion survey shows that support for bail reform is falling, according to The New York Times. “Support for the new law eliminating cash bail for most misdemeanor and some non-violent felony crimes has plummeted, and now 49 percent of New York State voters say the new policy is “bad” for New York compared to
Bail
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