ALBANY, N.Y. — There were dueling demonstrations in Albany on Wednesday regarding the controversial changes in the bail system established as part of Governor Andrew Cuomo's criminal justice reforms.
In the morning members of law enforcement and prosecutors from around the state — who say they were never consulted when the reforms were pushed through as part of the state budget last year — joined at the state capitol building.
There, they decried the changes, which make a host felonies — including certain forms of homicide, assault, even possession of child porn — among the crimes one can be accused of but for which bail can no longer be set.
"We need to pull this back today and we need to fix this," said NYS Senator Patrick Gallivan (R-59th District) who is a former Sheriff of Erie County and a member of the New York State Police. "We need to give judges the discretion back to consider what we should be considering first and foremost; public safety."
A few hours later, in the same building, supporters of the changes rallied.
They say cash bail has always been unfair to the poor, who are forced to prepare their defense — often for months while awaiting trial — from behind bars, simply because they lack the resources of more well heeled defendants to post bail.
"They need to be able to keep their jobs and keep their homes and pay their bills and fight from the outside," said Stanley Fritz of Citizens Action of New York.
Cuomo in the meantime has only indicated that perhaps adjustments to the new laws are needed, without specifying anything more.
"Changing the system, as we've started to do, is complicated and then has a number of ramifications. There's no doubt this is still a work in progress and there are other changes that have to be made," Cuomo said during his recent State of the State address.
There could be political ramifications as well.
Even though democrats who control the state legislature passed these reforms their state party chairman, Jay Jacobs told the New York Post that some members of his party could have problems getting re-elected if the reforms aren't modified.