How we're clearing out Rikers

From NBC:

Two teens accused of cutting off a cab driver's thumb and slashing several other people in the Bronx are out on $200 bail, and that's not sitting well with one of their alleged victims.

Bail to be eliminated for many low level offenders

From the Huffington Post:

Thousands of New Yorkers accused of low-level or non-violent crimes won't face the prospect of raising cash for bail under a plan that seeks to keep such suspects out of the troubled Rikers Island jail complex.

The $18 million city plan, detailed to The Associated Press ahead of the announcement on Wednesday, allows judges beginning next year to replace bail for low-risk defendants with supervision options including daily check-ins, text-message reminders and connecting them with drug or behavioral therapy.

Currently, about 41 percent of criminal defendants who pass through New York City courts annually are released on their own recognizance and another 14 percent, or 45,500 people, are held on bail.

About 87 percent of the 1,100 people on supervised release in already-existing city pilot programs return to court when they're supposed to, officials said.

Initial funding, provided by the Manhattan district attorney, allows for as many as 3,000 defendants charged with misdemeanors or non-violent felonies to bypass bail, letting them live with their families and keep their jobs while their cases wind through the courts. Officials say they would like to expand non-bail options to include thousands more.

Melissa wants taxpayers to bail out criminals

From the Daily News:

Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito wants to hand Get Out of Jail Free cards to criminal defendants — paid for not with Monopoly money, but with yours.

This is law-and-disorder lunacy on the public dime, gussied up as a way to drain the cesspool that is Rikers Island.

A proposed $1.4 million bail fund tops the City Council’s just-announced wish list for the $77 billion city budget.

The NYPD makes 260,000 misdemeanor arrests a year. Criminal Court judges release the vast majority of defendants on their own recognizance or on minimal bail.

In a small proportion of those cases — ranging from 5% in Staten Island to 10% in Queens — judges set bail beyond the reach of defendants. Annually, some 11,000 lack the money to post amounts ranging from $20 to $2,000.

The Council would post those payments in order to enable defendants to live in freedom while awaiting trial. Some chutzpah.

Judges set bail when defendants are deemed flight risks. Based on how few defendants are held, judges appear to be making considered judgments as to who’s least likely to show up in court.

Disrespectfully, your honors, the Council has decided it knows better than you how to determine who’s safe to free.