ALBANY, N.Y. — You may have seen our interview on the Town Hall last week with New York State Attorney General Letitia James. It made headlines across the state due to what she said about bail reform.
We asked her if cashless bail, which she has championed, may need to be revisited in light of rising crime rates.
Journalists across the state picked up on those comments, and the Attorney General was asked about all of this on Monday during an event with Governor Hochul.
Attorney General James made it very clear at the press conference on Red Flag Laws in Albany that she did not misspeak last week. A reporter in Albany asked James what she meant by her remarks when it comes to looking at closing potential loopholes that could allow repeat offenders to walk free. She started off her answer by listing some of her accomplishments as Attorney General saying her office has gotten more than 3,500 guns off the streets of New York State and has filed legal action against gun makers and distributors.
James also went back to when she was a New York City councilperson and talked about how she put cameras in public housing and called for police to wear body cameras. Then, she addressed what she said on our Town Hall last week.
"What I said last week in Buffalo was that we can not look at bail reform in isolation. We need to look at a wide range of other issues, including, but not limited to, our mental health system, the lack of pre-trial services, the lack of probation officers, the lack of correction officers, and the list goes on and on and on. To be fixated on bail reform without regard to looking at data, I think is a misstep, and I think the adage goes you're looking at the forest for the trees," said New York State Attorney General Letitia James.
The reporter then asked if she was misinterpreted at all last week, and this was her response.
"No, I wasn't misinterpreted at all. What I said was we need to look at a panoply of issues including but not limited to bail reform, but before we even get there, can we look at the other issues which are drivers of crime as well," said Letitia James.
After that, James was asked what she specifically means by that response, and she said the data needs to be analyzed. She said she had already said that well before her visit to Buffalo.