New Jerseys pioneering bail reform effort is approaching its one-year mark, and grading the overhaul varies depending largely on whom you ask, with proponents and skeptics falling along familiar political fault lines.
But here is what is not up for debate: fewer people are sitting in jail; the states bail-bonds industry is feeling the pain; and the new multimillion-dollar system is still contending with several legal challenges to its constitutionality.
For the first time in the states history, there is a conversation looking at whats happening with the system, said Judge Glenn Grant, acting administrative director of the New Jersey judiciary. Historically, those conversations were not going on.
The state virtually eliminated money bail in January and switched to a system where judges consider each defendants individual risk before deciding whether that defendant should be released or kept in jail whaile awaiting trial.
The new method addressed a concern long held by criminal justice advocates that too many poor people were stuck behind bars simply because they couldnt afford to get out.
Law enforcement officials also applauded the overhaul, since it allowed judges to keep potentially dangerous criminals locked up until trial. (Previously courts had to issue money bail to almost everybody.)
But critics claim the criminal justice overhaul is leading to an erosion of personal accountability and an uptick in crime, even though there is little evidence to back that up. Bail bondsmen, many of whom are going out of business under the new system, say that, without them, there is no longer anyone to make sure defendants follow the straight and narrow outside of jail.
Before cash bail was scrapped, opponents said low-level defendants released shortly after their arrest would break the law again in large numbers, resulting in a crime wave across the Garden State.
That never happened. Preliminary crime statistics from the New Jersey State Police show no major bump in violent offenses across New Jersey. In fact, just the opposite is true: For many serious crimes, the rates are dropping.
Compare the period from January through September of 2017 to the same period last year. Rapes and shootings are up slightly across New Jersey, but murders, robberies, and assaults dropped some by double-digit margins.
Still, some elected officials in the states urban areas blame bail changes for what they say is an increase in gun violence. At a recent press conference, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said too many defendants facing firearms charges are allowed back onto the streets within hours of their arrest.
Opponents have pointed to other cases where defendants accused of particularly objectionable crimes are let go, suggesting that judges are being too lenient.
While New Jersey lawmakers and the judiciary are high-fiving and celebrating the first year of implementation, many still languish in jail on nonpayment of fines and low monetary bonds issued by municipal courts, said Christopher Blaylock, a bail bondsman and founder of the website U.S. Bail Reform. All while sexual predators, drug dealers, prior felons with loaded guns, and offenders who spit on and assault cops walk free on a mere pinky promise.
Champions of the bail overhaul, including Republican Gov. Chris Christie, say those defendants could have paid their bail or posted their bond and gotten out just as quickly in years past. And now there is a way to detain dangerous offenders.
A 2013 study by the Drug Policy Alliance and Luminosity found that nearly 40 percent of jail inmates in New Jersey were locked up because they were too poor to afford their bail. The findings renewed calls to overhaul the bail system and ultimately sparked the criminal justice changes unfolding across the state.
Good. Bail is literal ransom to be free while awaiting trial. The fact some could be forced to wait for years to get the entire case to finish and then be denied time served was just rotten. ---
