Bail Reform: Proceed With Caution

A police officer walks by yellow evidence markers at a playground after a shooting in the Brownsville neighborhood in Brooklyn, NYC, on July 28, 2019. Mark Lennihan/AP Photo

Commentary

January 2020 ushered in a unique new law in New York state that abolished cash bail for defendants arrested for nonviolent crimes. Activists in the bail reform movement called it landmark legislation that stops judges from locking up the poor while they await trial simply because they can’t afford bail.