Over the past several months New York City has taken laudable steps to fix a number of problems related to our bail system. The city has expanded access to charitable bail funds, supervised release and diverted low-level offenses away from the formal arrest process. This represents progress and the hope for more substantive reform.
But as a citywide public defender that represents clients in every criminal courtroom throughout this city, we see a number of problems that go beyond the more substantial fixes planned by public officials. Many of these issues, which we believe are the simplest to remedy, relate to payment and processing of bail. Small hiccups at any point in the process can delay somebody’s release and result in unnecessary time on Rikers Island. For the “system” this problem may be minor, but for our individual clients the impact can be devastating. And while some of these problems do not have an easy fix, one does: people who have the money to pay bail should be allowed to do so in court, before being sent to Rikers.
