Here’s What’s Happened in NYC Since the State Ended Cash Bail on January 1
Posted at 1:45 pm on March 8, 2020 by Elizabeth Vaughn
In the spring of 2010, sixteen-year-old Kaleif Browder, an African-American resident of the Bronx, NY, was charged with robbery. He was accused of stealing a backpack. His family could not afford bail, so he was sent to Rikers Island Prison, where he remained for three years. Two of those years were spent in solitary confinement. During that time, he was not “tried or convicted of a crime.†Following his release, Browder committed suicide. Browder’s story is tragic. That such a thing could have happened is a disgrace. Clearly, action needed to be taken to make sure this never happened again.
The Democratic New York State Legislature set about to do just that. (I don’t know why it took them five years to do so.) And, as usual, the legislation went too far. On January 1, 2020, a new law went into effect that ended cash bail in most misdemeanor and non-violent felonies cases. Both New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio supported it.
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https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2020/03/08/heres-whats-happened-in-nyc-since-the-state-enacted-misguided-bail-reform-on-january-1/
