“Reform” means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. It does not require a revolution in which a radical change is necessary to overhaul the entire system. The Criminal Justice Section works to reform certain areas of the criminal law that needs some fine tuning, or at most redressing serious wrongs without altering the fundamentals of our system. It is with this tempered approach that our section seeks to improve justice for all citizens of this state.

Serving as defense counsel for the indigent, I came face to face with hundreds (if not thousands) of New York’s poor citizens facing the regrettable choice of pleading guilty to crimes they did not commit for the lack of $500 bail because another night behind bars would mean losing jobs, homes, and custody of their children. In my view, the bail system needs to be improved to educate lawyers, judges, and court personnel about alternative forms of bail and to only impose cash bail in the most serious of cases. Would the loss of $500 cash bail seriously be incentive enough for an accused to be in court if they were inclined to flee the jurisdiction? Surely, our system can be improved to address this incongruity. Since January 2018, the Criminal Justice Section has made Bail Reform a priority because the poor, un-convicted of any crimes, are needlessly filling our jails. New York is in a unique position this legislative term to make serious and meaningful progress in making changes to a system that unwittingly discriminates against the poor.