When the glittering ball finished its descent into Times Square at exactly midnight on Jan. 1, it didn’t just announce the dawn of the New Year — it ushered in a dangerous new reality of foolhardy New York state bail reform laws. These laws were drafted by a liberal state legislature and signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. According to a USA Today survey of New York counties, the new provisions culminated in the immediate release of 3,800 people held in jails.
What could possibly go wrong?
For any other states considering something similar, just give it a little time. The law of unintended consequences can be a troublesome playmate.
Former Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork wrote a 1996 book warning that modern liberalism was a leading factor in our country’s decline. In Slouching Towards Gomorrah, the esteemed jurist and default pessimist provides a cautionary tale. He envisions a dystopia where progressive thought subsumes the body politic, evoking a utopian worldview that every human being is eminently perfectible.
Spend one day in the policing profession, and you would understand this is utter nonsense.
Liberal extremism doesn’t nibble around the edges anymore. It cuts to the chase. There is no starker example of this than the fact that many on the political left consider socialism a viable form of economic policy.
Another wildly implausible policy objective offered by some criminal-justice activists is the “abolish the police” initiative. These folks aren’t arguing for reforms to the system — they are demanding the disbanding of law enforcement entirely. In the Nation, Mychal Denzel Smith argues that the replacement for the police force would be “full social, economic, and political equality.”
Socialist Richard Putz wrote about something similar in a piece headlined “What we need instead of police“:
In other words, why arrest people at all? Or maybe just initiate a catch-and-release program. Heather Yakin, in upstate New York’s Times Herald-Record, points out that cashless bail has some redeeming qualities. For instance, “people charged with crimes will be able to keep their jobs and homes while their cases are going forward.” She also rightly acknowledges that it essentially levels the playing field, rendering obsolete “the systemic imbalance where a defendant with money had a marked advantage over a defendant without.” Fair points, all.
But as she also notes, there are some rather obvious flaws in implementing such a system. Defendants who are flight risks need to be identified. The potential for recidivism, whether the defendant will commit new crimes while out on bail, also needs to be assessed. Yakin’s stunning pronouncement: “In New York, bail is meant to ensure that defendants return to court. Risk to commit crimes, danger to others? Not factors.”
That sends chills up the spines of law enforcement professionals who now have to contend with an influx of those sprung from county jails. Yes, the vast majority of them will honor their court commitments, show up on time for their hearings, and play within the rules. But how many will not? Do you want it to be one of your loved ones who falls prey to a violent repeat offender who should have remained behind bars pending their day in court?
There are certainly a multitude of available head-scratching examples of those eligible for release under the new law. Two months before the law was set to go into effect, the New York Post identified some obviously risky cases, such as these:
Proponents of the new law will argue that these are outliers and not an indication of the overall utility of the law. But forewarned is forearmed. Some GOP state senators in Albany ominously warned of the dangers in November, specifically for victims of domestic violence. As state Sen. Patrick Gallivan said:
Hopefully, other states will carefully consider New York’s foolhardy and flawed legislation, carefully scrutinizing any correlation between bail reform and an increase in criminality.
James A. Gagliano (@JamesAGagliano) worked in the FBI for 25 years. He is a law enforcement analyst for CNN and an adjunct assistant professor in homeland security and criminal justice at St. John’s University.
