President of the New York State Bail Bondsman Association Speaks Out Against Bail Reform After Man W

New York, NY: Michelle Esquenazi, the President of the New York State Bail Bondsman Association called on Governor Chris Christie to stop the insanity and reinstate surety bail.

Said Esquenazi, "What will it take to get Governor Christie to admit that algorithms and inexperienced pre-trial officers do not have the capacity to determine which defendants can be safely released into the community while awaiting trial.

“In the two and a half months since bail reform was implemented in New Jersey, the state has released dozens of suspected drug dealers, child molesters, burglars and those arrested for gun possession. Many of these defendants were arrested on another charge within days of their first arrest because they know they will be released again under the new system.”

According to news reports, Dawud Ward was arrested nine times since January 1st for nine separate burglaries in both Union and Middlesex counties. After each arrest, Ward was released without supervision.

Equenazi continues, “Governor Christie tells us that we should feel safe because only non-violent offenders are being released with monitoring bracelets. Well, that bracelet didn’t stop Joe Brown from shooting up a house on March 5th.”

Joe Brown was arrested on January 2nd for possession of guns, ammunition and drugs and released wearing a monitoring bracelet. He was arrested again on March 5th for shooting at a home in Newark, New Jersey.

Said Esquenazi, “Bail has been a part of our criminal justice system for two hundred years. It provides the defendant his or her freedom under the presumption of innocence while also providing supervision through the ability to revoke that freedom if the defendant proves him or herself to be a threat to the community. What bail reformers aren’t telling the public is that bail bondsmen form relationships with defendants and their family. It is quite usual for the bondsmen to help defendants get help for addiction and other conditions that caused them to break the law. Sometimes bail is the only leverage a family has to guide a child who has reached adulthood to get the help he or she needs.”

The bail reform movement was begun by Civil Rights Corp, a non-profit that claims that bail is unfair because it favors the wealthy and leaves poor defendants in jail before they are convicted. Thirteen places engaged in bail reform in 2016: Cuyahoga County, Cleveland, Alabama, Arizona, Calhoun, Georgia, California, Cook County, Illinois, Houston, Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico and Pennsylvania. This year, New York, Texas and Connecticut are also considering bail reform.

It costs $550 per month for a defendant to wear a monitoring bracelet and an average 18 months before a criminal case goes to trial - so the average cost for a defendant to wear a monitoring bracelet is $10,000.