Our recent report, “Cost of Discretion,” reveals that from 2020 to 2022, the pretrial decisions made by New York City’s fourteen most carceral judges resulted in an estimated 580 additional people detained, 154 extra years of pretrial detention, and over $77 million in costs to taxpayers. Given the growing body of research linking pretrial detention to negative impacts on public safety, the report recommends increased transparency for the New York judiciary and greater accountability for its judges.
The report struck a judicial nerve. Acosta, a former high-ranking appellate judge in New York’s court system, attacked the study in two op-eds. He was backed by twelve judicial groups, who echoed his objections in a published letter. Collectively, they labeled the study an attempt to “intimidate” judges and “undermine judicial independence,” as well as criticized its analysis as “flawed,” with Acosta even dubbing it “junk science.”
