NASSAU COUNTY, NY — Last month, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman signed an executive order that directs the police department to release a daily report on people who were arrested and released under New York’s bail reform laws. But the New York Civil Liberties Union says the order is a blatant attempt at fearmongering to try to tamp down on the civil rights of marginalized New Yorkers.
Blakeman’s executive order, which he signed on Jan. 19, directs the police department to release a daily report with pending criminal case data and the bail status of those who are arrested. As of Feb. 1, the police have not released any reports.
“It’s time that Nassau residents and the lawmakers who passed these dangerous laws know exactly how they are impacting our communities,” Blakeman said when he signed the order. “This executive order sheds sunlight on these dangerous laws and puts pressure on the governor and state lawmakers to put law-abiding Americans above criminals.”
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But the NYCLU says that’s not what Blakeman’s order does. Representatives from the civil liberties group say Blakeman is spreading fear and misinformation, calling it a common tactic whenever new laws advance civil rights.
“The safest communities are the ones with the most resources, not with the highest incarceration rates,” said Susan Gottehrer, director of the Nassau County regional office of the NYCLU.
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Bail reform
New York’s bail reform law went into effect in 2020. It eliminated bail on most misdemeanors and non-violent offenses. For serious and violent crimes, judges are still able to set bail — just like they always were. Estimates were that it would eliminate cash bail by as much as 90 percent in some areas.
The law also did not change how judges were allowed to determine bail. New York has never had a “dangerousness standard,” meaning judges are not allowed to detain people on bail because they think they could be a danger to the community.
Just months after the law was implemented, the state made changes and increased the number of offenses for which judges were allowed to assign bail at their discretion. Since the law was enacted, Nassau County was named the safest community in America for the second year in a row.
So do the changes to the bail reform law really make the area less safe? No, experts say.
But Blakeman says the bail reforms are dangerous, and he wants to repeal the law, as do many other Republicans.
“County Executive Blakeman is committed to doing everything in his power to repeal cashless bail laws and keep Nassau residents safe,” said Nassau County Spokesman Christopher Boyle in a statement to Patch. “This includes providing residents and the media real-time information on those individuals being rearrested for sometimes dangerous offenses after being released without bail.”
What does the data show?
Changing the criminal justice system — which includes bail reform — is a nuanced topic, Gottehrer says. But that nuance gets striped away by media and politicians.
“There are a lot of different factors that go into this conversation, and we’re just hyper-focusing on this one political tool,” she said, referring to bail reform.
Even before the law was enacted, opponents said it would make the state less safe. Criminals would get arrested, they said, and then released back into communities with no oversight, only to commit more crimes.
But, according to the NYCLU, that’s not what data shows. Jared Trujillo, the group’s policy council, said repeat offenders are rare. And people released without bail are showing up to court just as often as they did before the reforms were enacted — about 96 percent of the time.
“Crime is at historically low levels,” Trujillo said. “And for more places, crime rates have not really gone up. I don’t want to minimize the fact that we’re seeing more gun violence, but that’s across the country, whether they’ve done criminal justice reforms or not.”
Proponents of bail reform legislation say it is a civil rights issue. Bail for minor offenses keeps poor people locked up, while those who can afford to pay bail can walk free. By eliminating bail for minor offenses, you keep people working their jobs and engaging with their families and in their communities while they await trial.
The threat of pretrial detention often coerces people into accepting plea deals that do not favor them, Gottehrer said. To avoid lengthy pretrial jail stays, people may admit guilt even if they are innocent. That guilty plea then sticks to them for the rest of their lives, making it harder to get jobs, apply for housing or do just about anything.
“When we talk about bail reform, we’re talking about pretrial incarceration, we’re talking about people who are presumed innocent,” said Trujillo. “People who are thrown into a cage because they can’t afford their freedom.”
The NYCLU says that keeping crime down isn’t about jailing people, but about lifting up communities. There are programs that can make a real difference for people: substance abuse support, mental health support, after-school programs for children, employment support. The solution isn’t more incarceration, the group says, but investing in communities and addressing the issues that lead to crime in the first place.
“When people are able to be out in their communities, they don’t lose jobs,” Trujillo said. “If you really want to cut down on people re-offending, you don’t take them out of their source of employment and stability.
“Being in jail for just a day could mean you lose your childcare, place in rehab or your job,” he added.
The backlash to bail reform
Blakeman’s executive order, the NYCLU says, is simple fearmongering. It would show how many people were released without bail, but wouldn’t give any context. For example, how many people showed up for their court dates? How many had the charges against them dropped?
The reaction to the law is sad, but predictable, Trujillo said. It happens every time there’s an advancement in civil rights. Jim Crow laws, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan — they were reactions to advancing civil rights, he argues.
“When we think about the advancements of bail reform, discovery reform, Raise the Age — it’s just consistent with every other civil rights advancement,” Trujillo said. “We have this, and there’s going to be a pretty significant backlash to this.”
The backlash has already had serious consequences, Trujillo said.
“Since the bail reform laws have passed, because of the fearmongering, in cases where setting bail is discretionary, judges are setting bail more frequently,” he said. “And that burden falls on black and brown people.”
The other reason the backlash is so strong, Trujillo said, is because people don’t really understand what bail is, or how our criminal justice system works.
“Despite being the world leader in incarcerating people, we do nothing to teach people what the criminal legal system is,” he said. “People don’t understand the system. So it is very easy to scare people on things when they don’t understand the system.”
Instead of drumming up fear, the NYCLU wants elected officials to approach the issue from a place of honesty and present the facts as they actually are.
“Why is the county executive not talking about the data we already have?” Trujillo said. “The data about re-offense rates, the fact that they’re very low for violent crimes. Return to court rates, that they’re very high. We wouldn’t want to fearmonger about safety. And it would be great if elected officials would give people facts instead of scaring them, in a time that’s really scary already.”