In the 11th hour of the state budget process, news leaked that @NYGovCuomo & @NYSenDems were quickly & secretly working to pass a law to subject tens of thousands more people to pretrial detention each year. We are in an international health crisis. Rikers is an epicenter. Stop. 
“It is unconscionable that @NYGovCuomo, @AndreaSCousins, & other state legislators would use a public health crisis as leverage to pass a bill that would increase jail populations across the State.”
“To do so in secret, when the Capitol is closed to the public, during the budgeting process is even worse. If enacted, this proposal will drastically increase the number of people in jail who have not even had a trial yet.”
“The law would create a system in which innocent people are caught up in pre-trial detention and in which everyone’s rights are trampled.
It would ultimately set New York decades back.”
It would ultimately set New York decades back.”
“If anything, our current crisis underlines that our already overcrowded jail system is itself a public health threat. The rate of COVID-19 infection on Rikers Island is currently eight times that of the rest of the city. What happens within our jails impacts the rest of NY.”
“Attempting to crowd yet more people into cells at this time not only shows a flagrant disregard for New Yorkers’ rights, but a disregard for the wellbeing of the state at large.”
“As attorneys for New Yorkers from underserved communities - those most at risk of unjust imprisonment should these measures pass - we call on legislators to stand strong against bail reform rollbacks, which they fought alongside us to pass just last year.”
