People arrested for nonviolent offenses in New York City will no longer have to raise bail money to stay out of jail, according to a new plan detailed to the AP ahead of its release Wednesday.
The $18 million plan, pushed by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, will instead replace the bail process with supervision like daily check-ins, text-message reminders, and required drug or behavioral therapy.
Calls for reform were amplified by several recent high-profile deaths related to Rikers Island, the prison where those awaiting trial are kept. A mentally ill homeless man, whose bail was set at $2,500 for trespassing, died in a hot cell last year.
In another incident, 22-year-old Kalief Browder killed himself after being imprisoned awaiting trial for three years. Initial funding allows for 3,000 cases to enter the program. Read more.
{CB Frommer-Matzav.com Newscenter}
Liberalism will have us all killed. This is a terrible development.
#1 you forget that the purpose of bail is to ensure that the defendant shows up for trial, not to protect society. Until someone is convicted there is no permission to imprison — at least in free societies like ours.
The war on drugs did not reduce the usage, but did increase the flow of taxpayer money into the coffers of our over bloated government. Both liberals and conservatives would agree that we can not hold millions of nonviolent offenders in prisons.