Cash Bail, Broken Windows, Re-entry and More: New Yorkers for Justice Year In Review
Dear Readers,
Thank you for joining me over the past year as we explored issues that are important to those of us in the justice community and highlighted activists who are working hard to ensure that the system works for everyone, and not just the rich and powerful.
I started this newsletter because I think it’s important to make this work public and encourage dialogue and participation around issues like bail reform, the use of biased risk assessment tools by law enforcement, the role of law enforcement in our communities generally, and the ways in which the justice system often discriminates against people simply because they’re poor. I see these issues daily in my work as a lawyer for indigent defendants, and try to remedy them in my role as an Assemblyman. I’ve met so many incredible people doing this work, and want to ensure that their efforts are recognized.
In 2018, we talked to The Bail Project founder Robin Steinberg about the consequences of cash bail for people who can’t afford it:
We might be making real strides in dismantling the current criminal legal system as it exists, but it will only recreate itself if we don’t grapple with those larger issues around structural racism and economic inequality.
Lava Records CEO, founding board member of The Innocence Project and founding benefactor of The Bronx Freedom Fund, Jason Flom, called out the injustice of a system where Sandra Bland goes to jail and Robert Durst goes home:
Meek Mill went to jail for popping a wheelie with no bond. If he could’ve been bailed out, he’d have been bailed out. Meanwhile, a kid goes and shoots up a Waffle House gets arrested without incident, as all these shooters do because they’re white, and they set bond at $2 million. So if his family had posted $2 million, he would have been out.
The founder of Exodus Transitional Community, Julio Medina, talked to us about the incredible challenges formerly incarcerated people face upon re-entry, and why recidivism happens:
So many people are connected to family, but they lost those ties after 10 years. How do you re-establish that? Also, for a lot of people you’ve never worked in your life, and a minimum wage job in New York City is not going to pay the bills now. What’s your career platform? What are you looking to do and how do we help you build that career?
Our roundtable with Community and College Fellowship’s Reverend Vivian Nixon and Melanie Steinhardt, and Mt. Zion AME Church’s Reverend Jo-An Owings surfaced a discussion about what can be done to help women with criminal records heal from trauma and complete educational and job training programs that will enable them to thrive:
The experience of being in prison for however long is incredibly traumatizing, and most women who go to prison have experienced some kind of abuse before they even go, whether that be in emotional, physical or sexual. That’s something that really needs to be addressed. People need to be equipped.
We also focused on the role of the district attorney plays in ensuring that people of color and those without means get equal justice. CUNY law professor Steve Zeidman gave us the hard science behind why Broken Windows policing doesn’t work and discussed the role the DA plays in determining who gets prosecuted:
If a broken window is a problem, meaning that people who have nothing better to do will [think], this is an abandoned property that no one cares about, I can do whatever I want here — then the solution should be fix the window, not arrest anybody who comes near the broken window. Put money into housing. Put money into whatever it is, instead of saying if somebody is “loitering,” trespassing, I will arrest them.
Activist and survivor advocate Marissa Hoechstetter bravely shared her story of being failed by the Manhattan district attorney’s office after she was sexually assaulted by her doctor:
If you have this many women who come to you about a perpetrator who assaulted people using his professional authority in a workplace setting, don’t you have a responsibility to look into that employer and their practices that enabled this person? They have responsibility here too and the DA breezed past that.
And civil rights attorney Gideon Orion Oliver shared his experience fight to roll back a policy that allowed the NYPD to act as prosecutor in cases against Black Lives Matter activists:
I think one of the major problems with the fact that these cases are prosecuted the way they are is the chilling effect the prosecutions can have on activists and they can have on people.
My colleagues and I are incredibly grateful to our interviewees for their time and their work. We are looking forward to talking to more members of the justice community in 2019, and expanding our coverage of these issue. We welcome feedback and suggestions about who we should be interviewing next. You can email me directly at danquart.nyc@gmail.com and follow us on Twitter at @ny4justice. We’re also on Facebook here.
And if you’d like to get more involved in the community and work with us to address these issues, please reach out. We’re always looking for volunteers and partners. You can email me at the address above or DM me on Twitter at @AMdanquart.
Thank you for your support,
Dan Quart
Publisher, New Yorkers for Justice
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