Thread by @ScottHech

🔥 FROM NYT EDITORIAL BOARD: Calls it like it is. Connects today's Rikers horrors to last year's repeal of bail reform. Based on a"relentless scaremongering campaign by the police, prosecutors & some lawmakers who exploited a few high-profile crimes." More:nytimes.com/2021/09/15/opi…

"Mr. de Blasio likes to point out that citys jail population is roughly half the size it was when he took office. Still much too big: close to 6000. This number could be significantly lower if Mr. de Blasio & other politicians hadnt gotten cold feet about NY’s bail reform law."

NYT Editorial Board rightfully slams Mayor de Blasio's "plan." More corrections officers sent from the courts. And "calling on judges to release as many as 250 people serving less than a year for nonviolent crimes — *even though he has the power to release them himself.*" Phew.

NYT Editorial Board on the Mayor's "plan:"

"All stopgaps that fail to address the underlying problem: New York, like the rest of the country, locks up far too many people for no good reason."

NYT Ed Board on the cost of caging people: "Taxpayers are charged nearly half a million dollars per year to incarcerate each of these people—the vast majority of whom haven’t even had a trial yet."

Note: Pleased to see the @nytimes using the word "people" instead of "inmate."

NYT Ed Board on the $1/2 million per person per year it costs to cage people. "This is an absurd expense, especially when some evidence shows that pretrial detention for even a few days makes someone more likely to commit a crime, not less." Report: ils.ny.gov/files/Pretrial…

"NY needs to give bail reform a chance to succeed. Gov. Kathy Hochul needs to sign the Less Is More Act, which would prevent people on parole from being sent to jail for technical violations--like forgetting to check in with their supervisor."