This article was provided exclusively to the New York Analysis of Policy and Government by Judge John H. Wilson (Ret.)
The descent of California into chaos due to its government’s insistence on following hard-left ideology has been well documented, particularly in the ruination of its great cities. The same may be said for the once-great city of Detroit. As the New Year approaches, New York state is following suit.
In April of this year, the New York State legislature passed a bill which is intended “to end the use of monetary bail, reduce unnecessary pretrial incarceration and improve equity and fairness in the criminal justice system.” Known as the “Bail Elimination Act of 2019,” this new law, which takes effect on January 1, 2020, will do exactly that – in the majority of offenses, a Court no longer has the discretion to set cash bail on a criminal defendant.
Under CPL Sec. 510.10, prior to the changes made by the new law, a Court ” must, by a securing order, either release (a criminal defendant) on his own recognizance, fix bail or commit him to the custody of the sheriff.” Now, a Court shall…release the principal (criminal defendant) pending trial on the principal’s personal recognizance, unless the court finds on the record that release on recognizance will not reasonably assure the individual’s court attendance. In such instances, the court will release the individual under non-monetary conditions, selecting the least restrictive alternative that will reasonably assure the principal’s court attendance.”
Further, a Court is now required to “support its choice of alternative on the record. A principal shall not be required to pay for any part of the cost of release under non-monetary conditions.”
There are other aspects of this new legislation that will not be discussed here, including reducing the time a prosecutor has to bring a case to trial, and requiring prosecutors to provide evidence to the defense earlier in the life of a case than was previously required. These other changes are not as radical as the change at issue here – Courts no longer have the discretion to set bail in the majority of criminal cases in New York State.
Just what crimes are subject to these new rules? For example, felonies like Second Degree Burglary and Second Degree Robbery would Some individual thinks that it is grammatically incorrect and one must give credit to those who have managed to package what appears, on the surface, to be “penis order viagra india enlargement,” when instead, what men are really getting, is “penis enlargement.” Yes, I do realize those are the exact same therapeutic effect as the brand name medication as well as well-known Canadian local drugstore. An oral medicine will start its action within viagra canadian 30 to 45 minutes. This Kamagra is slightly costly if you choose oral jelly or viagra properien other items than oral pills. This is of course just speculation buy viagra online at this point. fall under the new release rules, however, it is shorter to discuss which crimes could still result in cash bail. For misdemeanors, only sex offenses (such as touching over the clothes, etc) and criminal contempt arising out of an underlying domestic case (for instance, a violation of an Order of Protection issued on behalf of one domestic partner against another) are subject to bail. For felonies, only violent crimes are subject to cash bail, such as Murder or Rape. But serious drug felonies, such as possession of a controlled substance with the intent to sell, or sale of a controlled substance, will be subject to the new rules.
In fact, when Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Anne Swern set a $100,000 bond on alleged drug dealer Arfhy Santos for driving down the sidewalk while fleeing DEA Agents, Santos’ defense lawyer argued for his release on the basis that his current charges ‘are not subject to bail under the new reform act.”
How drastic is this change? According to the Center for Court Innovation, “our analysis indicates that of the almost 205,000 criminal cases that were arraigned in New York City in 2018, the new legislation leaves money bail as an option in just 10 percent.” The Center notes that on April 1, 2019, 7,822 people were being held in New York City jails. Of these, “almost 5,000 were held pretrial and potentially impacted by the changes in the bail law. Our analysis finds that 43 percent of these 5,000 individuals…would have been released under the State’s bail reform.”
Though the law hasn’t taken effect yet, many of New York’s judges have already begun to follow the new bail rules. In November, Stathos Hugunnie was arrested by the NYPD for possession of three guns and a supply of both heroin and crack cocaine. Yet, despite a prior conviction for shooting a police officer for which Hugunnie was incarcerated for a least a decade, the Queens Criminal Court only set a $5,000 bail on Hugunnie, a bail he was able to easily post.
Further, to avoid a deluge of applications for release come January 1st, New York already has plans to release approximately 900 inmates from jail before the new bail rules take effect. According to the New York Post, those being released include “Jose “Catano” Jorge, charged with first-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance after a customer OD’d on fentanyl-laced heroin…(and) Jacob Morales, who has two prior assault convictions and allegedly pulled a razor on a No. 4 straphanger.”
The District Attorneys of both Staten Island and Queens, as well as numerous police officials across the state have asked the Legislature to reconsider the bail reform changes, or at the very least, give a “grace period” of at least 6 months before the statute takes effect. To date, Governor Andrew Cuomo refuses to reconsider the immediate implementation of the new law. Meanwhile, for his part, in anticipation of no longer needing the facility, New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio is busy planning to close New York City’s largest jail, Rikers Island.
The result of this change is readily apparent to everyone but the social engineers in Albany. According to New York PBA President Pat Lynch, while commenting on the low bail set on Stathos Hugunnie, “New Yorkers, this is your future, and the worst is still to come. The appalling and disturbing decisions that have now twice put a vicious cop-shooter back on our streets are not outliers — they are what our elected leaders have chosen.”
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