Bail reform has been a tragic failure

Over the past few weeks, newspaper and television headlines have been dominated by heartbreaking stories of senseless crime throughout the nation.

No one can deny that New York is one of the areas where crime is skyrocketing, especially after the tragic shooting earlier this month that killed two young NYPD officers, Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora. The uptick of crime across our state has many people, elected officials, and the media pointing to one culprit — bail reform. I can’t say that I disagree.

Since the New York State cashless bail law was passed in 2019, I have cautioned that these reforms were unlikely to cause positive change in the criminal justice system. Sadly, I was quickly proved right.

Of the 292 offenders released from Suffolk County's two correctional facilities for the Jan. 1, 2020 deadline, 34% have reoffended. And, it’s important to note that this number does not include anyone who was arrested after Jan. 1, 2020 and not incarcerated under the new bail laws who then might have reoffended. Many of these new offenses were drug charges or domestic disturbances. These crimes could have been avoided if the offender had remained incarcerated, and the victims of these crimes could have been spared their ordeals.

I do believe that there are other ways to create beneficial changes in the system that reduce crime, keep our communities safe, and achieve the goal of rehabilitation. I have been a vocal advocate of common-sense prison reforms — ones that I have successfully implemented and that have proved to work, such as:

• Substance abuse services offered within the Suffolk County correctional facilities help to break the link between addiction and crime. But, if released without treatment, many offenders will reoffend to satisfy their addictions because they do not have access to the treatment they would be receiving if they were still incarcerated.
• Job appointments (where inmates work in hands-on fields such as masonry, carpentry, landscaping and painting), training programs, and educational courses offered inside the correctional facilities often assist to reduce barriers to employment post-incarceration, barriers that may very well cause an offender to turn back to crime.
• The START Resource Center, a national model for rehabilitation and reentry, assists inmates immediately upon incarceration with planning their transition back into the community. Services include vocational assistance, mental health and addiction support, and housing to help put offenders on a better path upon finishing their sentences.

The success of these programs, not only in helping prevent recidivism but in keeping our streets safe, makes clear the need to implement judicial discretion in bail proceedings so more offenders can benefit from rehabilitation. A judge's decision on whether someone should or should not qualify for bail must not be based exclusively on the crime itself but instead on the accused's prior criminal history, a person’s flight risk, and, most importantly, whether they may pose a danger to themselves and the community.

Public safety needs to be paramount in our communities, and in order to accomplish that we need to focus on offering rehabilitation programs while in jail, not throwing offenders back onto our streets.

This guest essay reflects the views of Suffolk County Sheriff Errol D. Toulon Jr.