Press Statement

Civil Rights Groups and Legislators to Governor Cuomo: A Global Pandemic is No Time to Rollback Bail Reform

NEW YORK – Civil rights groups, advocates, elected and public health officials held a digital press conference today highlighting the public health dangers of ramming through bail reform rollbacks in the budget process in the midst of a global pandemic. Governor Cuomo and other members of the State Senate are still considering supporting shockingly regressive changes to bail reform that, in addition to exacerbating racial bias, would accelerate the public health crisis and put incarcerated people, staff, and surrounding communities at risk.

View the full digital press conference here.

This press conference comes one day after a letter from Health Committee Chairs Assemblymember Gottfried and Senator Rivera to the full Assembly and Senate conferences denouncing efforts to rollback bail reform during a health emergency. Senator Gustavo Rivera and Assemblymember Gottfried write, “Protecting bail reform is an issue of racial justice and public health with or without COVID-19. Rolling back this important policy now would worsen a public health crisis. And ramming it through as part of an “accelerated” budget process is even more offensive.”

The potential for rollbacks comes after months of cynical fear-mongering from law enforcement officials and political opponents who have deliberately sought to undermine the reforms. The State Senate’s reported proposal, which would significantly increase judicial discretion, would only reinforce racial bias and put more people behind bars. This is not only inhumane and a violation of New Yorker’s access to equal justice, but threatens further spread of coronavirus.

Dr. Bobby Cohen, former Director of Riker’s Island Health Services, former Vice President for Medical Operations at Health and Hospitals Corporation, and current member of the NYC Board of Corrections said, “Assuring the lowest possible population in the jails, through bail reform, discharge of old and sick prisoners, and reducing admissions will slow the spread of coronavirus in the jails. This will mitigate viral spread in New York City, and that will be good for all of us, particularly those living and working in the jails.”

“For far too long, our justice system has treated poor New Yorkers like they are guilty until proven innocent. My Senate colleagues and I worked hard this past session to fix this broken system, and successfully eliminated cash bail for misdemeanors and non-violent felonies,” said State Senator Jessica Ramos. “Reversing this law would not only set back our progress, but it would also exacerbate the spread of Coronavirus by keeping people in crowded jails where they’re at risk of contracting the disease. We need to ensure the right to a fair trial while treating people with dignity, especially as we continue working to curtail the pandemic we’re facing.”

For decades, thousands or even tens of thousands of people cycled through each of the state’s jails every year, often for just 1-3 days, though sometimes for far longer. In a pandemic, this “jail churn” means that the virus has thousands of opportunities to spread both inside jails and when individuals return home to their communities.

Bail reform is working. Each day in February 2020, there were 6,800 fewer people incarcerated pretrial in New York’s jails than in February 2019. This is 6,800 people who are not exposed to heightened risk of contracting COVID-19, people who are not subject to the trauma of pretrial jailing or the violation of their constitutional rights. Nationally, healthcare advocates and others are calling for bail reform and decarceration efforts like we have achieved in New York.

Public health officials across the country have made clear, jails and prisons are dangerous incubators for COVID-19, putting incarcerated people, staff, families and surrounding communities at risk. Jails are uniquely poor sites for stopping or containing viral outbreaks. Social distancing is virtually impossible in the close quarters of New York’s jails. Handsanitizer is deemed contraband and access to soap, toilet paper, and handwashing facilities is highly limited.

People in jail have disproportionate rates of chronic illnesses that make them vulnerable to the coronavirus. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 40% of incarcerated people suffer from chronic health conditions, including 20% with asthma (versus 11% in the general population).

Healthcare in New York’s prisons and jails is dangerously inadequate even without a pandemic. In the five years from 2013-2018, at least 50 people died in New York State prisons from want of adequate medical care.

Advocates and community leaders have argued that New Yorkers need investments in healthcare, safe housing and other services, not rollbacks to bail reform. During the rally, advocates presented the Community Safety Action Plan: Housing, Health, Education, Jobs and Justice in 2020, a new report outlining the steps legislators should take this session to effectively invest in services to urgently protect our most vulnerable New Yorkers.

“In the midst of this extremely trying time due to the Coronavirus pandemic, we should not have any bail rollbacks, said Assemblymember Michael Blake. “We should not let fear and misleading claims create injustice and taking our Black and Brown communities backwards in the March for Justice. In this time, we must be even more vigilant in ensuring that our brothers and sisters stay out of the prisons and jails and remain in safe environments. The publicly mentioned roll backs of Judicial Discretion, Dangerousness and/or Remand would lead to an increased number of New Yorkers being behind bars instead of being in their homes. In light of the pandemic that we are facing, it would be completely irresponsible to incarcerate more people when public health officials have said that jails can serve as incubators for COVID-19. Just as we continue to protect our most vulnerable New Yorkers from the Coronavirus, we must also protect another vulnerable population being our fellow New Yorkers who may be thrown in jail if these rollbacks go into effect!”

Assembly Member Lentol said, “In addition to the many arguments that many of us have made about maintaining bail reform as we agreed to last year, COVID19 health concerns adds an additional and critical reason for postponing any decisions on this subject. We need not rush to amend the law now for many reasons; health and the cost to localities to safely house this population are most current.”

“We have empirical data that proves that bail reform in its present state is working. We are in the midst of a global pandemic,” said Assemblymember Latrice Walker. “Altering the bail reform law at this time would not only be a disservice to the communities that were disproportionately affected by cash bail, but we would also be putting the individuals who work with the incarcerated population unnecessarily at a heightened risk. Increasing the number of people who may be subject to incarceration needlessly at this time stands to make matters worse and will not assist in flattening the COVID-19 curve.”