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New research published examines pretrial release in New York City during the first year of the state's new bail law. https://bit.ly/2N9PTv2 I'm on deadline but two things stick out to me right away:
The first thing is how frequently monetary bail is not required: Money bail was set in 11,493 cases in 2020, down from 23,289 in 2019 and a peak of 83,705 in 1987.
The second thing is that the rate at which people charged with violent felony offenses have been released without any monetary requirements has increased just 6 percentage points over the last 33 years.
That suggests that the bail law enacted last year has not led to shooters getting out of jail free, as has been asserted by the police. Except—
Some shooting cases are pleaded down to weapons possession, which is a nonviolent felony. The use of money bail for those NVF offenses has dropped 36 percentage points for those crimes over as many years.
The report does not break down charges or give figures for 2019, so it's impossible to gauge the impact of the new bail law, which eliminated monetary requirements for most misdemeanors and some nonviolent felonies.
I hope to digest more of this later, but I'm on deadline now!
I hope to digest more of this later, but I'm on deadline now!
I'd just like to clarify on this point that the plea is a conviction, so it doesn't fit into the pretrial narrative unless a higher charge is dismissed beforehand: https://twitter.com/AshleyAtTimes/status/1361748807701176325
