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New York City to end cash bail for non-felony cases in win for reform advocates
Source: The Guardian
New York City to end cash bail for non-felony cases in win for reform advocates
Change could save New Yorkers millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of days of jail time, and follows US trend towards reforming pretrial justice system
Jamiles Lartey in New York
Wed 10 Jan ‘18 20.50 GMT
The district attorneys for Manhattan and Brooklyn have announced that their offices will no longer seek bail for most non-felony cases, allowing defendants to be released on their own recognizance rather than sit in jail or fork over big sums of cash while awaiting trial for crimes deemed less serious.
The change could save New Yorkers millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of days of jail time, and follows a city, state and nationwide trend towards reforming the system of pre-trial justice.
The Manhattan DA, Cyrus Vance Jr, said his office would follow the new directive from Tuesday and would no longer request cash bail in most misdemeanor and violation cases. Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez’s office began doing similarly last year.
“Over the past eight years, we have made the advancement of criminal justice reform a part of the mission of the Manhattan district attorney’s office, right alongside our centuries-old founding mission of public safety,” Vance said in a statement.
-snip-
Change could save New Yorkers millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of days of jail time, and follows US trend towards reforming pretrial justice system
Jamiles Lartey in New York
Wed 10 Jan ‘18 20.50 GMT
The district attorneys for Manhattan and Brooklyn have announced that their offices will no longer seek bail for most non-felony cases, allowing defendants to be released on their own recognizance rather than sit in jail or fork over big sums of cash while awaiting trial for crimes deemed less serious.
The change could save New Yorkers millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of days of jail time, and follows a city, state and nationwide trend towards reforming the system of pre-trial justice.
The Manhattan DA, Cyrus Vance Jr, said his office would follow the new directive from Tuesday and would no longer request cash bail in most misdemeanor and violation cases. Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez’s office began doing similarly last year.
“Over the past eight years, we have made the advancement of criminal justice reform a part of the mission of the Manhattan district attorney’s office, right alongside our centuries-old founding mission of public safety,” Vance said in a statement.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/10/new-york-city-to-end-cash-bail-for-non-felony-cases-in-win-for-reform-advocates