We are criminal law experts at universities and colleges in New York and across the country. Among us, we have decades of experience with New York’s criminal courts. We write to raise our concerns about the onslaught of misleading and alarmist coverage of the new bail reform laws that took effect on January 1, after years of hard work by directly impacted people, grassroots organizations, advocates, legal researchers, and lawmakers.
Bail Bonds Office In Brooklyn, NY - Robert Nickelsberg
Studies have shown that overuse of pretrial detention has devastating costs to individuals as well as the community, and that reducing the number of people who are unnecessarily detained in jail pretrial improves public safety. Rather than providing accurate and objective context about the new law, some local news outlets, such as CBS-New York and the New York Post, have merely amplified the fear-mongering voices of police union officials, prosecutors, and politicians who have long opposed bail reform. Within days of the law taking effect, many local outlets began a barrage of cherry-picked stories designed to stoke panic and outrage with headlines like “Why New York criminals are celebrating the New Year.” This divisive reporting furthers a troublesome false narrative that the new bail reform law is putting our communities in danger. It pushes New Yorkers to blindly reject the new bail reform law based on fear and bias, not facts. New Yorkers deserve better.
New Yorkers depend on local journalism to provide honest coverage of the issues impacting their communities. Local reporting, especially reporting on crime, shapes the public perception and discourse about the safety of the community and the fairness of the criminal legal system. When reporters publish stories that are misleading, or reinforce false narratives based on fear and prejudice, they all but ensure that our justice system will continue to criminalize and incarcerate poor people and people of color, destroying families and communities, without making us safe — all because people act out of unfounded fear.
One example is the story CBS-New York ran recently about an individual who was charged and released after allegedly spitting at a Port Authority officer. The headline initially read '“Absolutely Ridiculous: HIV-Positive Suspect Released By Judge After Attacking, Spitting In Port Authority Officer’s Mouth” and their social media handle initially described it as an “HIV Attack” (it has now changed its posts and headline, but did not retract the story). As advocates who protested this coverage made clear, HIV cannot be transmitted via saliva, but CBS irresponsibly spread this misinformation, encouraging stigma of people who live with HIV to instill fear of bail reform.
The case of Tiffany Harris is another example of how local news has misleadingly sought to incite rage against the new bail reform. Ms. Harris, a young woman living with mental illness, was charged with misdemeanor assault for allegedly slapping several individuals and making anti-Semitic statements.
Under the new law, Ms. Harris was released and able to receive mental health treatment instead of being detained at Rikers Island for inability to pay bond. The Post ran a series of articles with headlines like “Bail reform is setting suspects free after string of anti-Semitic attacks,” attempting to tie her misdemeanor case to unrelated serious and high-profile anti-Semitic attacks, leaving readers to think that because of bail reform, people who violently attack Jewish communities are running rampant. Rather than offering objective and honest context, these articles weaponize fear to undermine the new bail reform. Recognizing this danger, Jewish legislators have spoken out, rejecting the narrative that bail reform encourages anti-Semitic violence in the community.
There are countless important stories that are not being covered — of individuals who have been released under the new law and gone home to their families without the devastation of losing their jobs or housing. There are stories of individuals who are now able to get community-based treatment or care, rather than sitting in a jail cell. There are stories of individuals whose release under the new law has allowed them to maintain the vital roles that hold their families together and makes the community as a whole more safe. Those stories should be told.
Contrary to Willie Horton-like claims that bail reform will make New York more dangerous, the evidence shows that an over-reliance on pretrial detention makes us less safe. Pretrial release can effectively ensure that people return to court and positively impact community safety. Under the new law, judges can order monitoring of individuals if there are flight risk concerns. They also still have the ability to impose bond in serious cases: most violent felonies, sex-related charges, and certain domestic violence charges remain cash bail-eligible. However, those kinds of cases are actually a small minority — historically, only 10 percent — of the cases that come through New York’s criminal courts.
The new bail law makes progress towards reducing economic and racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Under the old cash bail system, on any given day across New York State, roughly 14,000 unconvicted people sat in jail awaiting trial simply because they could not afford to pay for their freedom, not because their release posed a risk to the community. Those in jail pending trial are overwhelmingly poor and disproportionately people of color. Incarceration for even a few days, much less months or years, has devastating impacts on the individual, their family, and their community. Under the new law, fewer people will be forced to sit in jails because of an inability to afford an arbitrary fee. These steps are long overdue.
The danger of fear-driven news coverage cannot be overstated. These reforms are a critical first step towards a fairer criminal legal system and a stronger and safer New York. Continued examination, discourse, and engaging different viewpoints are essential to making this system fair and just for all of us, not just our most privileged. But if we want a truly just system and a safer community, we must move forward using facts, not fear, to guide us.
WE ASK THAT YOU REJECT THIS HARMFUL REPORTING AND MEANINGFULLY ENGAGE NEW YORKERS IN THIS EFFORT.
Cc:
Governor Andrew Cuomo
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie
Senate President Andrea Stewart-Cousins
Sean Giancola (CEO and Publisher, New York Post)
David Friend (Senior Vice President, CBS-New York)
SIGNED:
CHERYL BADER Associate Clinical Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law
RACHEL E . BARKOW Vice Dean and Professor of Law, Faculty Director — Center on the Administration of Criminal Law, New York University School of Law
LARA BAZELON Professor of Law, University of San Francisco School of Law
LEO BELETSKY Professor of Law and Health Sciences, Northeastern University School of Law; Health in Justice Action Lab
JOHN H. BLUME Professor of Trial Techniques, Cornell Law School
CHARLES S. BOBIS Adjunct Professor of Law; Professor of Law (Ret.), St. John’s University School of Law
ALVIN BRAGG Visiting Professor and Co-Director, Racial Justice Project, New York Law School
FRANK A BRESS Professor of Law Emeritus, New York Law School
SAMANTHA BUCKINGHAM Director, Juvenile Justice Clinic and Professor of Clinical Law, Loyola Law School, LMU — Los Angeles
BENNETT CAPERS Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School
STACY CAPLOW Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School
SANJAY K. CHHABLANI Professor of Law, Syracuse University College of Law
GABRIEL J CHIN Professor of Law, University of California, Davis School of Law
DAVID DORFMAN Professor of Law, Elisabeth Haub Law School at Pace University
JEFFREY FAGAN Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
BRENNER M. FISSELL Associate Professor of Law, Hofstra University, Maurice A. Deane School of Law
JAMES FORMAN JR. Professor of Law, Yale Law School
KELLEN R. FUNK Associate Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
NICOLE SMITH FUTRELL Associate Professor of Law, City University of New York School of Law
CYNTHIA GODSOE Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School
LAURYN P. GOULDIN Associate Dean for Faculty Research; Associate Professor of Law, Syracuse University College of Law
RANDY HERTZ Professor of Clinical Law, New York University School of Law
BABE HOWELL Professor of Law, City University of New York School of Law
SHERI JOHNSON Professor of Law, Cornell Law School
JEFFREY L . KIRCHMEIER Professor of Law, City University of New York School of Law
YOUNGJAE LEE Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law
KATE LEVINE Associate Professor of Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
JAMES MACLEOD Assistant Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School
KATHRYN E . MILLER Clinical Assistant Professor of Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
KATE MOGULESCU Assistant Professor of Clinical Law, Brooklyn Law School
ERIN MURPHY Professor of Law, New York University School of Law
ELIZABETH NEVINS-SAUNDERS Professor of Clinical Law, Hofstra University, Maurice A. Deane School of Law
JONATHAN H OBERMAN Clinical Professor of Law and Director, Criminal Defense Clinic, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
JOHN PFAFF Professor of Law, Fordham School of Law
GARY PIEPLES Clinic Director, Professor of Law, Syracuse University College of Law
MARTHA RAYNER Clinical Associate Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law
ANNA ROBERTS Professor of Law, St John’s University School of Law
JOCELYN SIMONSON Associate Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School
VINCENT SOUTHERLAND Executive Director, Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law; Adjunct Professor of Law, New York University School of Law
KIM TAYLOR-THOMPSON Professor of Clinical Law, New York University School of Law
ERIK TEIFKE Professor of Practice, Syracuse University College of Law
ANTHONY THOMPSON Professor of Clinical Law, New York University School of Law
DANIEL WARSHAWSKY Professor of Law, New York Law School
IAN WEINSTEIN Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law
STEVEN ZEIDMAN Professor of Law, City University of New York School of Law