Bail Reform in New York Essay Sample

Bail Reform in New York
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Bail Reform in New York
The criminal justice system is motivated to instill changes and improvements in its ranks to match the needs of this changing society. One area that has demanded such changes is incarceration. In a nation such as the US, incarceration has been seen as a problem rather than a solution. That is because the institution has consistently failed to deliver on its mandate of reforming individuals back to useful members of the community, going by the number of people re-arrested after their release from prisons. Still, more inputs are invested in developing lasting solutions to some of the problems, including overcrowding and overutilization of national resources in the criminal justice system. Some states such as Colorado, New Jersey, and California followed the trends with critical inputs in their bail reforms. Lately, New York made a similar attempt that failed terribly. That has triggered questions on bail reforms and why they would fail in a state that is burdened by incarcerations, such as New York. This paper explores bail reform in New York, emphasizing the nature of the reforms, the failures, and the future of such reforms in New York. The analysis is vital in understanding New York's position in bail reform currently and the changes it could make in the criminal justice system to adopt a better law for the future.
Understanding Bail
The concept of "innocent till proven guilty" has proven inadequate in its quest to deliver justice to various individuals. In most legal jurisdictions, the accused persons are not guilty until evidence points to their wrongdoing and the court sets the right punishment for their offenses (Shapiro, 2019). However, bearing the backlog in courts, it takes longer for an individual to be tried and be proven guilty or not guilty. Before the determination is reached, the system can keep the defendant in pre-trial jail or release him/her to continue with his/her normal activities as the trials continue. Upon the determination of guilt, an individual can be released or jailed. The concept of jails comes to save people in pre-trial jails. As the trials continue, an individual can pay some amount in cash bail or money bail, which is the amount of money deposited in the court to ensure that the defendant does not miss the proceedings. In most cases, the defendant can resort to bail bonds if he/she cannot raise enough cash to stand the money bail. This money is taken by the court to ensure that the defendant does not disappear amidst the court proceedings (Shapiro, 2019). Still, the bail allows the defendant to continue with his/her life normally until the court's innocence. If the defendant fails to appear for the hearings, the courts are mandated to issue a warrant of arrest.
Multiple complaints have been raised on the bail system, thereby triggering the need for reforms. Critics of the bail system insist that hundreds of thousands of people have met their rights violated as they are held in jail for long (Shapiro, 2019). Mostly, such individuals are unable to raise money or bonds for the bails. On the same grounds, having bails anchored on currency favors gives the rich an open platform to commit crimes while...