Is No Cash Bail Hurting Society?
By AUTUMN VERNA
In the beginning of 2020, New York joined California and New Jersey by passing the no cash bail reform. While the reform does help the overpopulation of jails, no cash bail is doing more harm than good because it is jeopardizing the public’s safety.
Allowing possible dangerous criminals back onto the streets gives them the opportunity to repeat the same crimes, especially considering that and not enough crimes are considered violent enough to instituteput a bail on.
This debate has been going on ever since California was the first to pass the reform back in 2018. Many thought that the law needed to change in order to stop discriminating against poor people, but did the law change too much?
With the reform working, people who committed crimes that are not under the violent category are allowed to go home and wait for trial. Before this reform was passed, the criminal would sit in jail until their hearing with a judge or if they paid bail.
The No Cash Bail reform does help with the problem of overpopulation in jails.
According to the article, “The controversy over New York’s bail reform law, explained,” “In a country overwhelmed by mass incarceration, where about 67 percent of those in county jails are there pretrial.”
While the overpopulation of jails does bring up the cost tax dollars, many Americans are fine with paying extra money if it means keeping the public safe.
The same article also says, “but just days after the law took effect, New York media and politicians were in a frenzy. Over the holidays, New York City and surrounding areas had seen a spate of anti-Semitic attacks.”
These hate crimes are a direct result of the no cash bail reform. Many of the people who committed these crimes are repeat offenders and would have been in jail waiting for trial if this law was not passed.
The reform is hurting society more than saving it because it allows potentially harmful criminals back onto the streets.
David M. Hoovler has been the district attorney at Orange County since 2014. He states, “all of New York is seeing a rise in crime because a vast majority of people in jail are out now and can commit the same crimes.”
Understanding how this new law is helping the public is hard when facts like this are true.
Additionally, he talks about how before the reform was passed, around 80 people a day were rearrested for a crime in Orange County, now it is around 150.
This is causing much more unnecessary work for police officers.
Moreover, not enough crimes are considered violent enough to put bail on.
According to Orange County District Attorney, David Hoovler, “It used to be 400 something crimes that judges could set bail on;, now, it is around 20.”
The criminals committing these 380 types of crimes can be extremely dangerous and willing to repeat their attempts at the crimes.
According to the article, “Fact-checking the NY bail uproar: 5 CNY crimes that help you understand what’s a real issue,” “In general, only violent felony charges can result in bail under the new law. That includes murder, forcible rape and illegal weapon possession, among others.”
Certain types of rape are not even considered violent. So, if the victim is already feeling unsafe from the situation having their attacker back onto the streets will make everything worse.
One proposed solution could be having more people look through different types of crimes and considering more to be violent enough to put bail on.
Works Cited
Asgarian, Roxanna. "The controversy over New York's bail reform law, explained." Vox, 17 Jan. 2020. Vox, www.vox.com/identities/2020/1/17/21068807/new-york-bail-reform-law-explained. Accessed 27 Mar. 2020.
Dowty, Douglass. "Fact-checking the NY bail uproar: 5 CNY crimes that help you understand what's a real issue." Syracuse, 13 Jan. 2020, www.syracuse.com/crime/2020/01/fact-checking-the-ny-bail-uproar-5-cny-crimes-that-help-you-understand-whats-a-real-issue.html. Accessed 27 Mar. 2020.
Hoovler, David. "No Cash Bail Reform." Westlake High School, 5 Mar. 2020, Thornwood. Speech.