Across the country, we’re seeing movements achieve historic wins for fairness, racial justice, public health, and public safety. A new law ending cash bail in Illinois. Prosecutors in California, who care more about fairness than punishment. Marijuana legalization in New York that reinvests in communities. Yet prosecutors and police are fighting back with the same polarizing scare tactics that created mass incarceration to perpetuate it. We must demand justice not fear.
The honest truth about bail reform written by criminal justice experts
A three-minute news segment on Gov. Hochul’s regressive bail reform rollbacks is riddled with lies and misleading information about state law.
Fact Check: False
The WIVB piece quotes “legal experts” who fearmonger and lie about bail reform. The misinformation comes as Gov. Hochul prepares to forge ahead with her dangerous proposal to weaken civil rights protections and unnecessarily jail more New Yorkers.
Gov. Kathy Hochul stated that a desire to avoid sensational newspaper headlines is a driving factor in her crusade to remove the “least restrictive means” standard that judges use when making bail decisions.
Fact Check: Fearmongering
Hochul’s decision to pacify cynical media outlets that actively lie about bail reform and undermine support for a successful policy instead of her constituents is another example of the governor choosing politics and optics over the lives of New Yorkers.
Republican elected officials and their representatives falsely claimed bail reform and Raise the Age were responsible for a criminal act on a Staten Island train platform.
Fact Check: False
The crime in question has no connection to bail reform, Raise the Age, or any criminal justice reform aimed at making the system more fair and just.
As a small group of prosecutors continues its 11th hour campaign to undo New York’s discovery reform laws behind closed doors, Justice Not Fear is debunking common myths and talking points about the law and the regressive proposed changes.
Fact Check: False
The truth is that 1) discovery reform is not creating any unjust outcomes; 2) the reforms do not create any “onerous” burden for prosecutors and; 3) the proposed changes are no “tweak” and would undermine the efficacy of the original law.
Congressional Republicans traveled to Manhattan to hold a sham Judiciary Committee hearing Monday morning that fearmongered about crime in New York City with the ultimate goal of undermining Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of former president Donald Trump.
Fact Check: False
Meanwhile, the same New York City leaders and police officials who have been cynically claiming that rollbacks to bail reform are necessary took to the media to push back against House Republican lies about crime. In doing so, they exposed their own lies in the months-long campaign for mass pretrial detention.
New York district attorneys are reportedly pushing for massive changes to New York’s discovery reforms passed in 2019 that brought the state in line with the rest of the country.
Fact Check: False
The proposed changes to the law – falsely styled as a technical tweak – would entirely undo the reforms in practice by creating case delays, shifting the compliance burden from the prosecution to the defense, and encouraging DAs to withhold discovery.
City officials advocated this week for expanded services and alternatives to pretrial incarceration for people arrested multiple times in New York City, arguing that service-based interventions can reduce crime and that pretrial incarceration should be a “last resort.”
Fact Check: True
Researchers also released arrest data this week that debunks Gov. Kathy Hochul’s claim that bail reform emboldened a small group of people allegedly responsible for crimes in the city.
The New York Daily News editorial board encouraged legislators to ignore all available facts about bail reform in an editorial supporting Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal to remove the “least restrictive means” standard in bail-eligible cases.
Fact Check: False
The Daily News continues to play a key role in misleading the public about bail reform. The piece based its argument on a misleading Siena poll that inaccurately queried New Yorkers about Hochul’s proposal.
Gov. Kathy Hochul lied to the public about bail reform again in a press conference this week, falsely claiming that her proposal to remove the “least restrictive means” standard is backed up by data and that an “inconsistency” currently exists within the bail laws.
Fact Check: False
Authors of a recent study on bail reform not-so-subtly rejected Hochul’s proposal, and there is no “inconsistency” found in a section of the bail law that has existed for decades.
In the most recent example of reckless criminal justice reporting, a CBS News article falsely linked a Manhattan shooting with bail reform and Governor Hochul’s efforts to rollback the “least restrictive means” standard.
Fact Check: False
A police official told reporters that bail was set and paid in the underlying case, meaning the case has nothing to do with bail reform. The article lied to readers by linking an instance of gun violence with bail reform and editorializing that the case will “stoke debate” in Albany.
Ray Tierney called for a series of unimaginative and failed solutions to address the state’s challenging opioid crisis.
Fact Check: False
We have decades of evidence showing that Tierney’s ideas – locking more people up pre-trial and enacting longer sentences for people convicted of drug crimes – do not work, instead magnifying harm that disproportionately affects Black and Brown New Yorkers.
Media coverage of Governor Hochul’s radical proposal to eliminate the “least restrictive means” standard once again failed to challenge the governor’s illogical and unsubstantiated claims, misleading readers and continuing a pattern of undermining support for a successful policy.
Fact Check: Misleading
The issue is clear. There is no inconsistency in the law and no reason judges should be confused about a standard that has existed for decades. Moreover, top court officials told lawmakers at a joint hearing that judges don’t need additional training to understand the state’s bail laws.
"The study found that rates of murder, larceny, and motor vehicle theft rose after the bail reform, but the increase may have been due to the pandemic instead of bail reform. The authors controlled for the impact of the pandemic by constructing a comparison group of other states also affected by the pandemic but without bail reform in the same period. After comparing New York State with the comparison group, the study found that the rate of increase in crimes in New York State was insignificant."
"Fulfilling the promise of a fairer criminal legal system requires firm commitment to the 2019 landmark law — not a retreat from it that will absolve prosecutors of their obligations and have devastating consequences for people awaiting trial. We urge state legislators to resist the governor’s and prosecutors’ attempt to weaken our discovery laws. Justice depends on it."
"The idea that people should be released before trial and only locked up as punishment after they have been convicted of a crime is actually a fundamental aspect of the American justice system. Holding people in pretrial detention has traditionally been the exception, not the rule."
"Governor Hochul and those who support her policies on policing and pretrial justice are now campaigning to ensure that more people suffer horrific deaths in jail before any determination of guilt, and that cops remain empowered to terrorize with impunity."
"If lawmakers are serious about reducing crime, they should continue their efforts to reduce pretrial jailing, end excessive sentencing, and make investments in communities that address needs. The safest communities have good schools, well paid jobs, stable housing, access to quality health care, including mental health care, drug treatment, and more. This is where policymakers should be directing their focus."
"We live in communities across the city and, like our neighbors, we have the right to be safe in our own homes, on the sidewalk, in subway stations – everywhere. New York’s jails deprived our loved ones of this right to safety – and make us all less safe. They bring about trauma and despair, not growth and healing. We’ve seen it firsthand. "
"The coalitions are collectively fighting for a safer, healthier, and more just New York, urging lawmakers to make significant investments and policy changes to enhance community safety rather than reinforcing a system that perpetuates poverty, inequality, and despair, which contribute to violence and insecurity."
"A politicized focus on bail reform distracts from real solutions for community safety. New York must take an evidence-based approach to address the root causes of crime by investing in safe and affordable housing, mental health services, employment opportunities, and a robust and inclusive safety net."
"Despite its proven benefits, bail reform continues to be relentlessly attacked. Hochul first gave in to political attacks by successfully rolling back the law last year, and now she’s pushing for changes that could make things even worse than they were before the 2019 law was passed."
"The study showed that the 2020 bail reform laws eliminating judges’ ability to impose bail for low-level crimes actually reduced the likelihood that someone would get arrested again."
"Not only have the 2019 bail reforms not driven any uptick in crime or failures to appear for court, the reforms also made an extraordinary and positive impact on the lives of the poor and working class New Yorkers who have historically been most harmed by cash bail and pretrial detention."
"Make no mistake, Hochul’s proposed amendment — removing the requirement that courts consider the least restrictive means for ensuring the accused’s presence — is a solution in search of a problem."
