Thread by @ScottHech

THREAD: Mayor Eric Adams just announced he wants to kill NY bail reform. Cage 100000s more. Wants judges to try predicting "dangerousness."

Kalief Browder, symbol of need for change, would've been "dangerous." Rikers still would've killed him. More on dangers of "dangerousness:"

Allowing judges to try to predict "dangerousness" has never been legal in NY. For good reason. It is racist, flawed, & deeply dangerous. Caging someone pretrial based on a suspicion. On skewed data that'll replicate currently existing racial disparities. There is no crystal ball.

Since the 1970s, New York voters have intentionally and importantly decided to prohibit judges from jailing someone for months or even years because of a prediction of whether someone is dangerous based on nothing more than a judge’s suspicion.

Though there are tools employed to assess “dangerousness,” they are based on decades of racist data. For example, bc Black/brown people are more likely to be unjustly arrested, theyre more likely to be in databases contributing to risk assessments.nyclu.org/en/publication…

We can’t predict the future. But we can & do detain people unnecessarily. Armed w/ even more power to do so, judges will. The state closely considered whether to allow judges to consider dangerousness. They explicitly rejected it. Plus: Reform is already working to keep us safe.

While Eric Adams fearmongers over public safety & bail reform law get this: Under bail reform nearly 100k more were released who otherwise would've been eligible for bail. Less than 1% on any given month are rearrested for crime considered "violent." Remarkably low "error rate."

While Eric Adams fearmongers over public safety/ bail reform get this: When judges choose to release those charged w/ violent felonies (still eligible for bail & not covered by bail reform at all) they're *least likely* to get rearrested for a violent crime. Yet they'll be caged.

While Eric Adams fearmongers over public safety/ bail reform, & weaponizes tragic gun deaths, get this: Under bail reform, less than half of one percent (less than .5%!) released who otherwise would've been eligible for pretrial caging, were rearrested for a gun offense.

Even w/ new bail law, we have seen what judges will do when given any power to detain people. Judges have recently used their remaining broad discretion to set bail to dramatically increase the number of cases they set bail on from the broad range of still bail-eligible cases.

In New York City, greater judicial discretion has resulted in a sharp increase in the number of people being sent to & caged on Rikers Island, where conditions are deadly, amidst a pandemic that is still raging behind bars. All because of fear not reason. nytimes.com/2021/09/15/opi…

The fact that Mayor Eric Adams has joined racist, far right GOP & pro-carceral forces around the state to call for a complete overhaul to commonsense, successful bail reform within his first month, should set off alarm bells: This is fearmongering. This is not reasoned judgment.

Gut reaction criminal justice policy, driven by outlier cases & political expediency is how we got mass incarceration. We're watching attempts to grow & perpetuate it happen in real time. Right now. We need to take a breath & let these reforms work. Have patience for change.

Again: how can anyone support allowing judges to try to predict future dangerousness when Kalief Browder—national symbol of the need to overhaul pretrial detention—would have been deemed dangerous, jailed, locked in solitary, & still ended his life?!

It's outrageous.

To expand pretrial caging for those we allow judges to deem “dangerous” means that for every one harm avoided, there will be hundreds of thousands of people, disproportionately Black & brown, who'll be caged unnecessarily. Incoming NYC Mayor is already calling for this. A cycle.

Crystal balls don't exist. Horrible, tragic things inevitably happen. It’s a horrible, tragic reality. Only thing we can do is try to make society healthier overall. We know from decades of data that more caging gravely undermines public health & safety.

https://twitter.com/ScottHech/status/1102753312619851790?s=20

Fact: Supporting judicial discretion to “predict future dangerousness” to jail someone pre-trial is supporting *racial profiling.* And the consequences are even more profound. Not just stopping & frisking based on race. Caging. Presumed innocent. With no way out. Based on race.

Kalief Browder sat on Rikers pretrial for 3.5 years on $3500 bail for a crime he didn't commit. Under Eric Adams proposed right-wing, GOP, racist change, Kalief would have been *remanded.*

This outrageous proposal must be rejected swiftly and immediately.

Important statement from citywide public defenders:

https://twitter.com/BklynDefender/status/1485748721686044674?s=20

Important statement from @FWDus:

https://twitter.com/FWDus/status/1485735578893271062?s=20