CHANGE LAWS – NOT BAIL TO REDUCE JAIL POPULATION

Michelle Esquenazi, President of the New York State Bail Bondsman Association says that bail reform isn’t the answer to crowded jails. Instead states should remove arcane laws that put people in jail. Esquenazi says that states like New Jersey which have implemented bail reform, are aborting justice because savvy criminals are now taking advantage of the fact that the crimes for which they are being arrested score low on the Public Safety Assessment algorithm. Once they are set free on their own recognizance, some defendants are being rearrested for committing the very same crime in other counties.

Said Esquenazi, “If you read the newspapers you will see that defendants like Dawud Ward, are playing the system. He was arrested 13 times for burglary and set free according to his algorithm score over and again. After each release he was suspected of burglarizing another house in another town. We are so concerned with protecting the rights of suspected criminals that we are forgetting about government’s chief responsibility to protect its citizens. We shouldn’t be sacrificing public safety in order to reduce our jail population.”

In response to those who are claiming that the removal of bail is needed so that poor people are not stuck in jail, Esquenazi has this to say, “Defendants are not in jail because they are poor. They are in jail because they are suspected of committing a crime. If we truly want to reduce the jail population we should consider reforming arcane laws that are on the books so that our law enforcement officers are not made to arrest homeless people or young people who are in possession of a marijuana cigarette, or those who have racked up parking or speeding tickets. Those are the defendants most likely to be non-violent and who pose little or no threat to society. Removing laws which are victimless crimes will immediately reduce the jail population and will allow police officers to focus their efforts where they are most needed.”