Mar 04, 2020

Center for Community Alternatives;

On January 1st, New York's new bail reform law went into effect. This law, fought for by communities across the state, was designed to reduce the number of people and families harmed by pretrial incarceration, protect the constitutional right to the presumption of innocence, and address the criminalization of poverty and of Black and brown communities.Before the passage of bail reform, New York's fifty-seven counties outside of New York City spent $705.5 million jailing legally innocent people each year.This system of mass pretrial incarceration coerced plea deals and destabilized individuals who were often in dire needof support, not pretrial punishment. By some estimates as many as 84% of people in New York jails had a substance use disorder or mental illness. National surveys show that 20% of people incarcerated in local jails have a "serious mental illness" like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Without bail reform, New York's local jails would have continued to function as warehouses for people failed by social services and social policy, including people struggling with mental health needs, substance use, and homelessness.Bail reform is already working. Each day, there are 6,000 fewer people incarcerated pretrial in New York's local jails.Thousands of people can thus return to their families and receive the treatment and care they need as they await their date in court. With the state budget deadline fast approaching, this is a critical moment for New York's legislature to protect the new law from regressive changes, and instead commit to shifting resources to the services - education, healthcare, mental healthcare, and housing - that keep communities safe and thriving. To do so, we must re-examine the staggering sums counties have historically spent on jailing compared to community-based resources.

Feb 21, 2020

Brooklyn Community Bail Fund;

In 2019, New York enacted historic pretrial reforms that will result in a dramatic reduction in pretrial detention populations across the state by eliminating bail and pretrial detention for most misdemeanors and non-violentfelonies. That means, in most cases, a person's liberty will not depend on how much money they have.

Jan 06, 2020

Brooklyn Community Bail Fund; Public Access Design; The Center for Urban Pedagogy;

Money bail continues to divide New York States' criminal legal system into two tiers: one for those who can pay, and one for those who can't. Unfortunately, this means if you can't afford to pay bail, you go to jail.

Dec 19, 2019

Court Watch NYC;

Ahead of new statewide bail reform legislation taking effect on January 1, 2020, this publication from our collaborative prosecutorial accountability project, Court Watch NYC, highlights the importance of the reforms and the work left to be done, provides examples from court illustrating how prosecutors are already attempting to subvert the law, and why we'll be watching to hold them accountable in the new year.

Dec 12, 2019

Brooklyn Community Bail Fund;

Fact sheet about bail reform in New York, including how the law will affect New Yorkers, as well as the hard data illustrating the personal, economic and systemic impact of money bail and pretrial jailing on individuals, families and communities.

Nov 13, 2019

Brooklyn Community Bail Fund;

As a follow up to our 2017 report "License & Registration Please," this report documents commercial bail bond company compliance with recently passed New York City and existing New York State laws meant to increase oversight of the predatory commercial bail bond industry.

Jul 01, 2019

Vera Institute of Justice;

n April 2019, New York passed legislation on bail reform to update a set of state pretrial laws that had remained largely untouched since 1971. Compared to California's Senate Bill 10, passed in August 2018, or New Jersey's Bail Reformand Speedy Trial Act, enacted in January 2017, New York's new bail law received relatively little media coverage or national press. To many interested in bail and pretrial justice, New York's reform seemed un-newsworthy as it didn't go as far as originally promised to eliminate money bail entirely.Yet the relative lack of fanfare over the passage of New York's new bail law belies its historic and transformative potential to end mass incarceration at the local level. If implemented effectively, a conservative estimate of the  legislation's impact suggests that New York can expect at least a 40 percent reduction overall in the state'spretrial jail population.1 That bests the 30.4 percent reduction achieved by bail reform in New Jersey, and the anticipated impact of Senate Bill 10 in California— which is currently on hold pending a challenge by the bail bond industry—if it goes into effect in 2020.What exactly comprises New York's new bail law? What inspired this set of reforms? Can bail reform truly claim to be bold if money isn't eliminated entirely? And what precedent might New York's model of bail reform set for other jurisdictions?This primer provides historical context and an overview of the legislation itself, highlights five unique aspects of the legislation, and offers a few thoughts for how the wins in New York can inspire more comprehensive and transformative bail reform elsewhere. 

Oct 31, 2018

Court Watch NYC;

The first issue-based zine from Court Watch NYC, a collaborative prosecutorial accountability project between the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund, VOCAL-NY and 5 Boro Defenders. This zine features findings from over 423 hours of observing how drug cases are handled in Brooklyn and Manhattan arraignments.

Apr 26, 2018

NYCLU;

The Student Safety Act (SSA) requires that the New York City Police Department publically issue quarterly reports on arrests, summonses, and other police-involved incidents in New York City public schools.i The 2017 calendar year is the second year in which the NYPD reported on activity in schools by officers outside of the School Safety Division, giving a more complete picture of the impact police have on the educational environment. iiSince 2012, the number of arrests and summonses issued by School Safety Officers (SSOs) has consistently declined. In 2017, SS0s were responsible for less than 15% of arrests and 2% of summonses. However, the vast majority of police interactions with students in school are not with the school safety officers specially trained to work with youth in schools, but with other law enforcement officials, including armed patrol officers. In addition, 366 arrests (29% of total arrests in schools) were for incidents that occured off school grounds and had no relationship to the school, indicating that police may be using schools as a place to locate and arrest young people for non-school related offenses. This practice sends the harmful message that kids in trouble should stay away from school.The School Safety Division has made a significant effort to reduce the use of summonses for non-criminal offenses. In 2017 they issued just 18 summonses, down from 1,275 in 2012. Summonses for disorderly conduct, including unreasonable noise, fighting and obscene language, are not an appropriate response to student misbehavior. However, precinct officers are not required to follow the same procedures as the School Safety Division, and officers issued nearly 900 summonses, sending children into the criminal justice system for misbehavior.Black and Latino students continue to bear the burden of arrests, summonses, and police interactions in school, and the city has failed its responsibility to reduce the racial disparities in its school safety program. Black and Latino students represent 66.9 % of the student body, but 90.2% of arrests and 89.3% of summonses in school. They also accounted for 88.4% of child-in-crisis incidents, 87.9% of juvenile reports, and 89.5% of mitigated incidents. Students of color were also more likely than white students to be handcuffed for school misbehavior, even where there is no criminal activity. Black and Latino students accounted for 92.5% of juvenile reports and 94.4% of mitigated incidents where handcuffs were used, as well as 93.4% of child-in-crisis incidents where handcuffs were used.

Mar 13, 2018

NYCLU;

Across New York State tens of thousands of New Yorkers are held in city and county jails, not because they have been convicted of a crime, but because they cannot afford to pay for their release while awaiting trial.The harms of unaffordable cash bail are unequivocal: people lose their jobs, homes and families while detained. People also forfeit their rights to trial when pleading guilty in exchange for release. Yet little has been known about how many people across the state have been locked up because they did not have the means to pay bail, about the charges they faced or how long they were kept in jail.To better understand the impact of bail practices in New York, in 2015 the New York Civil Liberties Union sent Freedom of Information Law requests to a sample of eight small, medium and large counties across the state asking for five years of data. The information we received offers a stark glimpse into what New Yorkers have had to endure.

Jul 01, 2017

Center for Constitutional Rights;

In August 2013, a federal judge found that the New York Police Department (NYPD) had engaged in a widespread practice of unconstitutional and racially discriminatory stops and frisks and ordered a collaborative, joint remedial process (JRP) to develop a set of reforms that will help bring the NYPD's stop-and-frisk practices into compliance with the Constitution. The judge highlighted the importance of getting this input, writing at the time, "No amount of legal or policing expertise can replace a community's understanding of the likely practical consequences of reforms in terms of both liberty and safety." The JRP ensures that communities who have been directly affected by these practices will have direct input into shaping the future of stop and frisk in New York. The JRP was envisioned to solicit ideas for additional reforms from communities most impacted by stops and frisks. In addition to community stakeholders, the process will involve the City, members of law enforcement, local elected officials, organizations with expertise in policing and criminal justice attorneys representing the plaintiffs. This process echoes a similar process successfully implemented in Cincinnati, Ohio over a decade ago to address systemic abusive and biased policing practices. Guiding this process is the court-appointed Facilitator, Hon. Ariel Belen.

Jun 12, 2017

Brooklyn Community Bail Fund;

This report details findings from four months of investigation of commercial bail bond industry practices and operations in New York City, highlighting the lack of the industry's compliance with state laws and regulations.

May 08, 2017

NYCLU;

The Student Safety Act (SSA) requires that the New York City Police Department publically issue quarterly reports on arrests, summonses, and other police-involved incidents in New York City public schools. The 2016 calendar year marked the first time that the NYPD reported on activity by officers outside of the School Safety Division, giving a more complete picture of the enormous impact police have on the educational environment. Since 2012, the number of arrests and summonses issued by School Safety Officers (SSOs) has consistently declined. However, in 2016, SS0s were responsible for less than 12% of arrests and 2% of summonses. Thus, this decline in reported incidents is only a fraction of the picture. 2016 is the first year for which school-based incidents involving not only SSOs, but all NYPD personnel, were reported.

Apr 20, 2017

Center for Popular Democracy; Urban Youth Collaborative;

This report, released by the Center for Popular Democracy and Urban Youth Collaborative, reveals the staggering yearly economic impact of the school-to-prison pipeline in New York City, $746.8 million. In addition, it presents a bold "Young People's School Justice Agenda," which calls on the City to divest from over-policing young people, and invest in supportive programs and opportunities for students to thrive. New evidence of the astronomical fiscal and social costs of New York's school-to-prison pipeline demand urgent action by policymakers. The young people who are most at risk of harm due to harsh policing and disciplinary policies are uniquely situated to lead the dialogue about developing truly safe and equitable learning environments. This report highlights the vision for safe, supportive, and inclusive schools developed by these youth leaders.

Oct 01, 2016

Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law;

This fact sheet provides data on the effect of "stop-and-frisk" on crime in New York City, updating an earlier Brennan Center analysis. Stop-and-frisk was a police practice under which officers stopped and searched citizens, allegedly without the reasonable suspicion required for these interventions. Concerns about the program first arose under Mayor Rudy Giuliani, during William J. Bratton's first tenure as police commissioner. After growing slowly in the early 2000s, stop-and-frisk began to rapidly increase in 2006, when there were 500,000 stops citywide. By 2011 the number peaked at 685,000. It then began to fall, first to 533,000 stops in 2012. Stop-and-frisk became a central issue in the 2013 city mayoral race because of a concern that the program unconstitutionally targeted communities of color. The program's supporters disputed this, insisting that stop-and-frisk was essential for fighting crime in such a huge city. In August 2013, federal district court judge Shira Scheindlin found that stop-and-frisk was unconstitutional. The stop-and-frisk era formally drew to a close in January 2014, when newly-elected Mayor Bill de Blasio settled the litigation and ended the program. Given this large-scale effort, one might expect crime generally, and murder specifically, to increase as stops tapered off between 2012 and 2014. Instead, as shown below, the murder rate fell while the number of stops declined. In fact, the biggest fall occurred precisely when the number of stops also fell by a large amount — in 2013.

Jul 17, 2016

Brooklyn Community Bail Fund;

2015 - 2016 Annual Report.

Jan 19, 2016

PLOS ONE;

Social justice issues remain some of the most pressing problems in the United States. One aspect of social justice involves the differential treatment of demographic groups in the criminal justice system. While data consistently show that Blacks and Hispanics are often treated differently than Whites, one understudied aspect of these disparities is how police officers' assessments of suspects' size affects their decisions. Using over 3 million cases from the New York Police Department (NYPD) Stop, Question, and Frisk (SQF) Database, 2006–2013, this study is the first to explore suspects' race, perceived size, and police treatment. Results indicate that tall and heavy black and Hispanic men are at the greatest risk for frisk or search. Tall and heavy suspects are at increased risk for experiencing police force, with black and Hispanic men being more likely to experience force than white men across size categories.

Dec 01, 2015

NYCLU;

For years, those who questioned the NYPD's vast stop-and-frisk program were told by its supporters that it was an essential crime fighting tool. But four years after stop-and-frisk's peak of nearly 700,000 stops in 2011, an analysis of NYPD data shows serious crimes have fallen significantly, as stop-and-frisks have declined drastically. This analysis dispels the myth that the massive, discriminatory stop-and-frisk program was necessary to keep New York safe.

Jun 01, 2014

Communities United for Police Reform;

In 2012, community-based, legal, policy advocacy groups and researchers in New York City came together in an unprecedented multi-strategy effort to end discriminatory and abusive policing in New York City. Communities United for Police Reform (CPR), the campaign around which these groups coalesced, helped to change the local conversation on public safety, increased the knowledge and practice of New Yorkers in observing and documenting police misconduct, and led the movement to enact the Community Safety Act – two laws promoting increased accountability and transparency of the New York Police Department (NYPD) to all New Yorkers.This report outlines CPR's recommendations for nine areas that the NYPD Inspector General should consider for investigation, review, study and audit, in order to issue findings and recommendations that will improve public safety and protect the rights of all New Yorkers. The first six represent areas that should be considered priorities in the first year of the Inspector General's tenure.

Jun 01, 2014

Communities United for Police Reform;

En 2012, diferentes grupos de base comunitaria, legales y de defensoría junto con investigadores académicosen la Ciudad de Nueva York se unieron en un esfuerzo de múltiples estrategias sin precedentes para acabarcon acciones policiales discriminatorias y abusivas en la Ciudad de Nueva York. Comunidades Unidas por unaReforma Policial (CPR, por sus siglas en inglés), la campaña en torno a la cual se unieron estos grupos, ayudó acambiar la conversación local sobre la seguridad pública, incrementó el conocimiento y la práctica entre neoyorquinos/as para observar y documentar la falta de ética laboral de la policía, y lideró el movimiento para aprobarla Ley de Seguridad Comunitaria – dos piezas legislativas que promueven responsabilidad y transparencia en elDepartamento de la Policía de Nueva York (NYPD, por sus siglas en inglés) ante todos/as los/as neoyorquinos/as.Este reporte delinea las recomendaciones de CPR en nueve áreas que el Inspector General del NYPD debe considerar para su investigación, revisión, estudio y auditoría, con el objetivo de resolver descubrimientos y recomendaciones en cuanto a asuntos que mejorarán la seguridad pública y protegerán los derechos de todos/as los/as neoyorquinos/as. Las primeras seis representan áreas que deben ser consideradas como prioridades para la agenda de trabajo del primer año del Inspector General.