'No Evidence' Bail Reform Rollback Will Reduce NYC Crime: Study

NEW YORK CITY — Comptroller Brad Lander had two words for prominent politicians who argue rolling back bail reforms will reduce crime in New York City: "No evidence."

Those words sum up a slew of pre- and post-bail reform arrest data outlined in a study Lander released Tuesday.

The vast majority of people released before trial pre- and post-reform were not rearrested on new charges, the study found. And 99 percent of defendants were not rearrested on a new violent felony charge, according to the study.

"Further rollbacks to the bail reforms passed in 2019 would primarily serve to extract more money from vulnerable communities and increase the number of people held in City jails awaiting trial," the study states. "There is no evidence that they would lead to a reduction in crime."

Crime is on the rise in New York City, and a growing number of politicians have proposed rolling back bail reforms as a way to curb violent incidents.

Mayor Eric Adams is perhaps the most prominent voice for tweaking bail reforms — notably arguing that judges should be allowed to consider "dangerousness" as a factor when setting bail.

For a while, Gov. Kathy Hochul backed keeping bail reforms — which set a high bar for keeping people accused of crimes detained before trial — but she recently proposed tweaks, including a change to the "Raise the Age" law that would allow judges to charge teens as an adult if they possess of gun.

Advocates decried the proposal and cast them as a regressive return to a system that perpetuated a cycle of incarceration that disproportionately affected Black and Brown communities.

Lander's study dropped amid a potential rollback of reforms tied to the state's budget.

It found 96 percent of people released before trial were not rearrested after bail reforms took effect in 2020, the study found. That's nearly identical to pre-bail reform levels, according to the study.

"Bail reform legislation by the New York State Legislature in 2019 reduced the number of people subject to bail meaningfully, lowering the number of cases in which bail was set from 24,657 in 2019 to 14,545 in 2021," the study states. "Meanwhile, the vast majority of people awaiting trial in the community were not rearrested on new charges."

The study also highlighted areas in which bail reforms fell short.

Average bail amounts actually rose since reforms took effect, it found.

"In 2021, the average cash bail amount set at arraignment was $38,866, double the $19,162 average in 2019," the study states. "While increases in average bail amounts likely stem from broad restrictions on setting bail for lower-level charges, bail law explicitly requires judges to consider the defendant’s financial circumstances."

Read the full study here.