New York City—In response to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s recent push to rollback New York’s new bail reform law that will ensure fewer legally innocent people are arbitrarily jailed because they cannot afford their freedom, Stanley Fritz, Political Director of Citizen Action of New York, released the following statement:
“While Mayor de Blasio spent most of his time during the last state legislative session running a failed vanity campaign for president, the State Senate and Assembly worked hard with policy advocates, legal experts, impacted people and stakeholders across the board to craft the recently enacted pretrial laws, including ending cash bail for non-violent, low-level offenses. The laws as written will significantly reduce the amount of legally innocent New Yorkers – accused, but not convicted of non-violent, low-level offenses – being detained for months or years just because they can’t afford to pay for their pretrial release.
“Mayor de Blasio’s time would be better spent helping to solve New York’s homelessness crisis and ending the systemic racism within the New York City Police Department that’s led to disproportionate enforcement and acts of violence targeting predominantly Black, Brown and low-income New Yorkers without consequence.”
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