Tag: Pretrial Bail

Abbott’s Bail Agenda Could Swell Texas Jails, Test U.S. Constitution

Edric Wilson spent 18 years awaiting a murder trial that would never come. From September 2006 until his release earlier this year, he split his time between the Harris County Jail and state psychiatric hospitals, with little or no hope of release. For 12 years, he was denied bail completely. Eventually, a judge set his bail at $850,000, which his family couldn’t afford. So he kept waiting. 
Texas jails around 70,000 people at any one time, and more than half are awaiting trial, per the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. A third of jail admissions nationwide are for misdemeanors, and nine out of the 10 most common charges are nonviolent, including drug offenses and failure to appear in court, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.
— Read on www.texasobserver.org/bail-legislature-abbott-jails/

The effects of cash bail on crime and court appearances

On any given day, approximately 514,000 people are held in local jails across the United States. Though defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty, more than 80% of the jail population are awaiting trial and have yet to be convicted of a crime. Defendants accused of particularly serious violent crimes or who pose a credible threat to public safety may be detained in jail while awaiting trial. However, most defendants are entitled to pretrial release. Judges may impose conditions on a defendant’s release, such as electronic monitoring or supervision through a pretrial services agency.
— Read on reason.org/policy-brief/the-effects-of-cash-bail-on-crime-and-court-appearances/

Recommendations to Reform New York’s Bail Reform | Manhattan Institute

The recent crime uptick and drop in public support for New York’s recent bail reform suggest that the law needs fixing. Manhattan Institute fellow, Rafael Mangual, suggests his recommendations to “reform the reform” and enhance public safety while still keeping the original reform efforts in tact.
— Read on manhattan.institute/article/reforming-new-yorks-bail-reform-a-public-safety-minded-proposal

Chicago Way w/John Kass: Discussion with Rafael Mangual

Excellent!

This podcast covered Policing, Racism, Progressive Prosecutor, & Cash Bail. Rafael Mangual is an expert on these topics. Also see Mangual’s book – there is a link to it at the like below.

Chicago Way w/John Kass: Kindness is for holiday parties, not revolving-door criminal courts – John Kass
— checkout the podcast at johnkassnews.com/chicago-way-w-john-kass-kindness-is-for-holiday-parties-not-revolving-door-criminal-courts/

Bail reform in New York in Creases Recidivism

  • Bail:
    • To protect the VICTIM and Society (Not considered in New York yet)
    • To make sure the offender appears in court
    • To make sure the offender does NOT re-offend

Recent Bail changes have hand cuffed police and judges from setting appropriate bail. Before the new bail changes Police were able to hold offenders (really for 1 or 2 days) until arraignment or post bail based upon the types of crimes the offender was arrested for. This was helpful especially when dealing with volatile situations (like neighbor disputes and domestic violence) where police could hold an offender overnight until arraignment by a judge. There are other situations when police arrest persons on warrant and that person used to be turned over to the municipality to answer the warrant and held to see a judge. This made the offender accountable to the criminal justice system. Now many more offenders are ignoring the fact that they have to attend court.

At arraignment “prior to the recent bail changes” a judge had the freedom to release the offender, hold the offender, or put bail on the offender. Now current legislation has curtailed the judges freedom to hold an offender or to set bail and it has become almost automatic for most crimes to release the offender. What has resulted is an augment that recidivism has increased as a result of the bail changes which has led to a decrease in public safety.

John Jay College has just released a report “Does New York’s Bail Reform Law Impact Recidivism?” that tends to disprove the premise that the NY bail reform changes have increased offender recidivism. However, if you’re on the ground in the criminal justice system there is an overwhelming sense that recidivism is one of a few significant outcomes that has resulted since the changes in bail reform. Another is increased disrespect by offenders to officers and probation.

The article “Straight Talk About Bail Reform” argues that bail reform has led to an increase in recidivism by offenders. The article has several links with data supporting it’s argument. One prominent link is to a New York Post article “Bail ‘Reform’ Increased Crime – and Misleading Studies Don’t Prove Otherwise” that makes an extensive analysis how New York’s bail reform increased recidivism and how the John Jay Report (listed above) erred with it’s analysis. The professors should look at the New York Post article and recalculate their finding and submit a correction

If you believe that the recent changes in bail reform are good please challenge these ideas to the “Straight Talk About Bail Reform” article and the New York Post article “Bail ‘Reform’ article. Another helpful article is “More Criminals, More Crime Measuring the Public Safety Impact of New York’s 2019 Bail Law”.

Also when considering Bail reform changes keep the following points in mind:

  • Resent changes were solely Offender based – None of the changes considered Victims
  • Offenders can miss court dates and warrants will NOT be issued for them, at least not until the court tries to call, text, and email the offender for several days
  • If a Victim or Witness misses a court date the case can be dismissed. REMEMBER who violated the law.
  • Under the old law when and offender was held by police the most the could be held would be 72 hrs (ex Friday to Monday) if there was no available judge on the weekend. The offender was usually arraigned the next morning.
  • Most station house bail was in the hundreds of dollars.
  • Holding an offender was a good decision for safety or they refuse to cooperate with their identity
  • Under the old law it was probably 30% Held/Bail and now less than 5% Held/Bail so it was always a small number of arrests held/bail

Podcast then Glenn Show: A discussion between Glenn Loury and Rafael Mangual about Mangual’s Book: “Criminal (In)Justice: What the Push for Decarceration and Depolicing Gets long and Who It Hurts Most”

If you haven’t read Rafael Mangual’s book it’s AWESOME!!  It’s an easy read pertinent to what is going on in policing and criminal justice. If you have never listen to the Glenn show before it is an awesome podcast.

This episode of the gun show highlights much of what is discussed in the book with Glenn Loury, playing devil’s advocate, and Rafael Manuel answering all his questions. I recommend listening to this podcast and then going out and getting the book. 

Glenn Loury (Manhattan Institute, Brown University) and Rafael Mangual (Manhattan Institute, Criminal (In)Justice: What the Push for Decarceration and Depolicing Gets long and Who It Hurts Most)
— Read on bloggingheads.tv/videos/65115

Rethinking Electronic Monitoring: A Harm Reduction Guide | American Civil Liberties Union

Electronic monitoring was supposed to replace cash bail. If this is a failure, what’s happening to the people that are supposed to be released and monitored? Maybe placing bail on people that are a threat to society or are going to commit more crime is a good thing. Especially seeing that other methods of controlling people as they are out awaiting trial is not working. 

Rethinking Electronic Monitoring: A Harm Reduction Guide, calls on jurisdictions to replace electronic monitoring with less restrictive and more effective measures, such as court reminders and transportation assistance. The report also outlines ways jurisdictions can mitigate the harms of monitoring in accordance with due process and fairness principles.
— Read on www.aclu.org/report/rethinking-electronic-monitoring-harm-reduction-guide