Nassau Panel Suggests 8 Changes To Criminal Justice Reforms

MINEOLA, NY — A public safety panel has suggested a series of changes to New York's criminal justice reform legislation, which has faced fierce criticism from law enforcement officials and many politicians on both sides of the aisle.

Laura Curran, the Nassau County executive, announced Friday that a committee she commissioned last month completed its final report. In it, the panel outlines recommended amendments to new laws that ban monetary bail conditions from being set in non-violent criminal cases and force prosecutors to quickly hand over key identifying victim and witness information to defense attorneys.

On Friday, Curran's office said she sent the report to lawmakers in Albany for their consideration. She called the suggestions "common sense, not politics."

"Our number one concern is the safety and security of our communities,” Curran said. "I want to thank the dedicated members of this committee, the officials in charge of public safety on Long Island, for their swift action to identify the key problems they’re seeing on the ground as well as fair and realistic solutions."

The eight-member committee, made up of various law enforcement officials including Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder, Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon Jr. and Nassau County Police Benevolent Association President James McDermott, acknowledged that people shouldn't be jailed on low-level crimes because they can't afford to post bail, but stressed that judges aren't able to exercise necessary discretion on a case-by-case basis as they had in the past. The legislation removed bail for crimes that the "average person" would consider violent, the final report said, and victims and witnesses are endangered by the new requirements governing the discovery process.

Below are the eight changes recommended by the Committee on Criminal Justice Reform.

Bail Reform

1. Do not limit the types of crimes that a judge can set cash bail. Judges are routinely asked to exercise discretion when making case decisions, the report said. While some cash bail isn't necessary in some felony drug cases it is necessary in others with the same charge.

"The judge presiding over that case should be able to exercise discretion and at least have the option of cash bail available," the panel said.

2. Do not limit the factors the court can consider when evaluating bail applications. The panel said the new legislation eliminated certain factors that could be considered in criminal cases, such as the defendant's family and community ties. Those should be taken into consideration for cash bail, the panel said, as well as other factors, such as whether the defendant poses a risk to others or himself.

3. Any alternative to the imposition of bail or incarceration must be meaningful and effective. In cases where the court frees a defendant on conditions of release, there should be sufficient consequences for not following those conditions.

4. Judges should be allowed to issue a warrant immediately when a defendant fails to appear in court. A rule that prevents courts from immediately issuing a bench warrant when defendants fail to appear in court — and allowing defendants 48 hours to appear again before having a warrant issued — is "diametrically opposed" to the purpose of bail, the panel wrote.

"Such a failure to appear on the required date is indicative of an individual's unwillingness to accept the court's jurisdiction and therefor requires his or her detention," the panel wrote.

5. Allow judges in criminal cases to use their discretion, as other judges can do in other matters. The limitations placed on judges is "inconsistent" with how discretion is treated in other matters, the committee said. Under different, new legislation, courts can review background information on people to determine whether an extreme risk protection order is warranted. This includes looking at a history of domestic violence, using a weapon and whether the person has previously violated protection orders. Similar options should be available to courts when determining whether to release a defendant while they await trial, the panel said.

Discovery

6. Increase the 15-day requirement to at least 90 days that prosecutors have to turn over all witness and victim information to defense attorneys. The panel said police need more time to hand over case documents to prosecutors. The new legislation doesn't take into account that some cases involve multiple jurisdictions or are complex and involve serious crimes that take time to compile, the report said.

"The sheer volume of discovery that needs to be provided in those cases is a logistical impossibility in this 15-day period," the committee said.

7. Allow prosecutors to negotiate plea deals as they had done before the reform legislation. As Patch previously reported, all discovery evidence, such as documents and testimony, must be handed over at the same time, early on in the process and before any potential plea deal. Limitations on plea bargains, coupled with the speedy discovery timetable, places a strain on all law enforcement agencies, the panel said, and significantly burdens crime labs that must adhere to protocols and methods involving evidence.

8. Do not include identifying information about witnesses and victims in the automatic discovery category. This type of information has to be included in the expedited time frame and could lead the public fearful of reporting crimes or cooperating in criminal investigations out of fear of retaliation, the report said. Such sensitive and private information should only be disclosed immediately before a person testifies, the committee added.

Justin Harrison, policy counsel for the New York Civil Liberties Union, previously told Patch earlier this month that his organization supports the reforms overall, and that they're working as planned.

"More attention should be paid to the people who have been charged with minor and low-level offenses who are not a risk and who are being released and sent home to go back to their jobs and back to their families, as opposed to being held in jail because they can't afford to pay," Harrison said.