How’s that prison reform movement working out in New York? Not so good…
Heckuva job mayor!
The Post reports that since Mayor de Blasio’s push to decrease the city’s jail population, suspects charged with serious drug crimes and violent felonies are increasingly going free with little if any bail — only to skip court dates or be re-arrested on new charges. While no state agency tracks judges’ records when it comes to setting bail, prosecutors, cops and defense lawyers insist that more suspects are walking free today than ever before.
How bad are things in New York? A disgusted police veteran told The Post, “Adolf Eichmann wouldn’t even [have to] post bail in The Bronx on a drug case.” Another law-enforcement source added, “We’re seeing judges completely undercutting our recommendations, with [repeat offenders] being cut loose without bail.”
The mayor set in motion the dangerous softball approach shortly after he took office looking. He was looking for ways to reduce the jail population, especially at Rikers Island.
Arguing that “too many people have been detained at Rikers, sometimes for years, while they wait for trial,” de Blasio announced a nearly $18 million plan in July that allows judges to replace bail with supervision options, including daily check-ins and text-message reminders about upcoming court hearings.
Judge Ramseur
How are those “supervision options” working out? Repeat accused drug peddler Juan Reyes was busted March 8 in The Bronx for allegedly punching his girlfriend in front of her two kids. Within nine months, Reyes, 26, was busted twice more — for allegedly selling or possessing heroin and crack near a school. Apparently the judges in all three cases — Dakota Ramseur*, Nicholas Iacovetta and Linda Poust-Lopez — define “supervision options” very loosely as they all released him on his own recognizance.
(*In February of this year, Judge Ramseur released a man without bail after he showered his 13-year-old niece with boiling-hot cooking oil. The good judge issued an order of protection prohibiting the man from going near his niece.)
The parents of children who attend the school near where Reyes was busted, were furious. “I believe in chances, but not when it comes to kids,’’ said a parent of an 11-year-old at the school.)
Judge Richardson-Mendelson
Accused burglar Nickolas Grivas, 54, was busted on Aug. 6 and freed by Manhattan Judge Edwina Richardson-Mendelson on $7,500 bail — even though prosecutors asked for $100,000. While free, Grivas allegedly committed another burglary. And in yet another case, a prosecutor asked for $30,000 bail for accused gunpoint robber Oluwasean Are, 20, but Manhattan Judge Abena Darkeh let him go free.
De Blasio spokeswoman Karen Hinton said the mayor “has been clear . . . about needed bail reform. When suspects are considered violent and dangerous, they should remain in jail until trial. If suspects are not considered dangerous and not a flight risk, their inability to make bail should not be the reason they are locked up.’’
But David Bookstaver, spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration, said judges cannot take “dangerousness” into account when setting bail — only whether the accused can be expected to show up for court. State top Judge Jonathan Lippman, “has proposed a bail-reform package that would . . . allow judges to consider public safety when considering bail,” Bookstaver said.
DCG
