Bill Text: NY S05571 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Establishes a temporary blue ribbon commission to study bail and the bail industry; requires an interim report be issued one year after the effective date of this act including the commission's findings, conclusions and recommendations, and a final report of the same shall be issued two years after the effective date of this act including legislative proposals as it deems necessary to implement such recommendations.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-01-05 - REFERRED TO FINANCE [S05571 Detail]
Download: New_York-2021-S05571-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5571 2021-2022 Regular Sessions IN SENATE March 11, 2021 ___________ Introduced by Sen. LANZA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Finance AN ACT to establish a temporary blue ribbon commission to study bail and the bail industry; and providing for the repeal of such provisions upon expiration thereof The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. 1. Establishment. There is hereby established the blue 2 ribbon commission on bail to examine, evaluate, and make recommendations 3 on the application of bail in the criminal justice system of the state. 4 2. Powers and duties. Such commission shall examine issues relating to 5 bail including, but not limited to: 6 a. Administration. (1) Determining the viability of allowing private 7 citizens and bail agents to post bail bonds for any case in a county or 8 borough while the arraignment parts are open, including the ability to 9 post a bail bond at night and on the weekends in the arraignment parts; 10 (2) Allowing bail bond agents to post bail bonds at correctional 11 facilities twenty-four hours a day in all counties; 12 (3) Allowing electronic transmittal of release orders to jails; 13 (4) Allowing court issued release orders to be listed by docket number 14 only; and 15 (5) Issuing state identification to qualified bail bond agents and 16 staff. 17 b. Arraignments. (1) Examining data regarding the number of individ- 18 uals arraigned on violations, misdemeanors and felonies, broken down by 19 county or borough on a monthly basis over the latest two-year period for 20 which the data is available. Such data shall include a breakdown of the 21 statistics described in subdivision a of this section, regarding the 22 number of cases: 23 (a) dismissed at arraignment; 24 (b) pled at arraignment; EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD07004-01-1S. 5571 2 1 (c) released without bail, including but not limited to individuals 2 released on their own recognizance, supervised releases, conditional 3 releases to probation or other conditional releases; 4 (d) in which bail was set, including the bail amounts and the types of 5 crimes charged; 6 (e) whether defendants had holds; and 7 (f) whether bail was paid at arraignment; 8 (2) The number of cases in subparagraph one of this paragraph that 9 were disposed of on the next court appearance and the type of disposi- 10 tion; 11 (3) A breakdown by ethnicity of the individuals in cases listed in 12 subparagraphs one and two of this paragraph; 13 (4) A breakdown by economic status of the individuals in the cases 14 listed in subparagraphs one and two of this paragraph and how such 15 arrestee's economic status was determined based on an interview 16 performed by a criminal justice agency; 17 (5) The number of cases in subparagraphs one and two of this paragraph 18 in which bail was set using a form of bail other than cash and surety 19 bond; 20 (6) Warrant and return on warrant rates for individual arrestees list- 21 ed in subparagraphs one and two of this paragraph, broken down by the 22 type of securing order and level of crime; and 23 (7) Re-arrest rates for individual arrestees listed in subparagraphs 24 one and two of this paragraph, broken down by type of securing order, 25 amount of securing order and level of crime. 26 c. Charitable bail. Determining and examining data regarding how an 27 arrestee's indigence is determined when being considered for charitable 28 bail, including: 29 (1) How charitable bail organizations obtain clients; 30 (2) How resources are used to obtain background information on poten- 31 tial clients to make a proper determination about whether to use chari- 32 table bail; 33 (3) Failure to appear rates for individuals released on charitable 34 bail guarantees and, if applicable, number of returns on failure to 35 appear warrants; and 36 (4) Charitable bail organizations, including such information relating 37 to: 38 (a) funding sources; 39 (b) expenditures for administration; 40 (c) expenditures for actual bail; 41 (d) expenditures for lobbying; 42 (e) expenditures for forfeitures; 43 (f) expenditures for staff salaries; and 44 (g) how charitable bail organizations adhere to section 6805 of the 45 insurance law by which they are provided licensure. 46 d. Failure to appear. (1) Determining and examining data regarding the 47 number of failures to appear reconciled against the number of individ- 48 uals arraigned during a specific, defined period; and 49 (2) The attending costs of failure to appear, including but not limit- 50 ed to: 51 (a) expenditures related to the re-arrest of absconders; and 52 (b) municipalities' costs to replace police personnel in court. 53 e. Jail populations. Determining and examining data regarding method- 54 ologies used to determine the population of inmates and economic status 55 of a defendant held on bail. Such methodologies shall include:S. 5571 3 1 (1) The ethnic breakdown of individuals held in jail on bail and of 2 those claiming to be indigent; 3 (2) A statistical breakdown of the number of defendants in jail broken 4 down by the type of securing order on which they are held, including 5 remands and sentenced prisoners; 6 (3) The number of defendants who have release holds other than bail 7 and the type of restriction; and 8 (4) The amount of time defendants spent in jail from arraignment to 9 release from custody, for the following reasons: 10 (a) bail posted; 11 (b) case dismissed; 12 (c) guilty plea; 13 (d) release without bail; 14 (e) remand or transport to other entity; and 15 (f) sentence imposed. 16 f. Pretrial release programs. (1) Examining data on current statewide 17 pretrial release numbers broken down by type of crime charged, includ- 18 ing, violations, misdemeanors, and violent and non-violent felonies. 19 Such pretrial release information shall include: 20 (a) securing order status; 21 (b) failure to appear rates; 22 (c) re-arrests and type of arrest; and 23 (d) disposition of the case, including the original charge; 24 (2) For each pretrial services program, an annual report describing 25 the rates of failures to appear, new crimes being committed while 26 released under pretrial supervision, and the total annual cost of the 27 pretrial services program within the jurisdiction; 28 (3) Statistics describing pretrial services programs' policies, 29 including: 30 (a) the methodology to determine indigence; 31 (b) listing of all fees charged for services provided to defendants; 32 and 33 (c) detailed listings of the total fees collected, by fee category; 34 (4) Effect on pretrial remand rates in states or jurisdictions that 35 have enacted bail reforms, implemented pretrial supervision programs, or 36 employed release algorithms; 37 (5) Statistics providing the total population of jails in this state 38 for the last five years, including: 39 (a) the total percentage of the jail population that is in pretrial 40 status; 41 (b) the percentage of those in pretrial status that are not bailable 42 and breakdown of the reasons such persons are not bailable; and 43 (c) the percentage of those who could post bail by posting a bond 44 which have not posted a bond, with a listing of the amounts of the bonds 45 pursuant to which such persons are being held; 46 (6) Effect on pretrial crime rates in states or jurisdictions that 47 have enacted bail reforms, implemented pretrial supervision programs, or 48 employed release algorithms; 49 (7) Drug overdose rates before and after implementation of reforms in 50 states or jurisdictions that have enacted automatic non-monetary release 51 for non-violent misdemeanor crimes; and 52 (8) Cost analysis to determine: 53 (a) startup and annual operating costs of pretrial supervision 54 programs; 55 (b) implementation and annual operating costs of pre-arraignment 56 screening programs;S. 5571 4 1 (c) increase in funding to law enforcement to counter increased 2 warrants and crime rates; 3 (d) cost to court system for extra staff and hours required for new 4 programs and related hearings; 5 (e) loss of tax revenue and licensing fees from bail bond industry; 6 (f) indirect costs of reforms, pension costs for supervision programs, 7 court officers and police, costs resulting from increased failure to 8 appear rates and recidivism; and 9 (g) determination of whether the state or local municipalities will 10 bear the total cost of reforms, and the cost to the taxpayer. 11 3. Membership. a. Such commission shall consist of thirteen members 12 who shall serve a term of two years and shall be appointed as follows: 13 five members to be appointed by the governor, of which one member shall 14 serve as chair of the commission, one member shall be a representative 15 of the charitable bail organizations chartered in this state, and one 16 member shall be a representative of the commercial bail industry 17 licensed in this state; three members to be appointed by the temporary 18 president of the senate, of which one member shall be a representative 19 of the charitable bail organizations chartered in this state and one 20 member shall be a representative of the commercial bail industry 21 licensed in this state; three members shall be appointed by the speaker 22 of the assembly, of which one member shall be a representative of the 23 charitable bail organizations chartered in this state and one member 24 shall be a representative of the commercial bail industry licensed in 25 this state; one member shall be appointed by the minority leader of the 26 senate; and one member shall be appointed by the minority leader of the 27 assembly. 28 b. In addition to these voting members, the commission shall have six 29 non-voting, ex officio members. The following government agencies or 30 officials shall appoint one ex officio member each: the attorney gener- 31 al, the chief judge of the state, the executive director of the division 32 of criminal justice services, the commissioner of corrections and commu- 33 nity supervision, the state comptroller, and the superintendent of the 34 state police. 35 4. Meetings. The commission shall meet at least six times. The meet- 36 ings of the commission shall be held at the call of the chair or whenev- 37 er five or more members so request. The locations of the meetings shall 38 provide for representation of different geographic areas of the state. 39 The first meeting shall be within ninety days of the effective date of 40 this act. A majority of the members of the commission shall constitute a 41 quorum. Approval of any matter shall require the affirmative vote of a 42 majority of the members voting thereon. Members may designate and 43 authorize another person to act for him or her by proxy. Proxies shall 44 be revocable at the discretion of the member executing it. 45 5. Proceedings. The deliberations, meetings and other proceedings of 46 the commission and any committee thereof shall be governed by article 7 47 of the public officers law. Any one or more members may participate in a 48 meeting by means of a conference telephone call, conference video call 49 or similar communications equipment allowing all persons participating 50 in the meeting to hear each other at the same time. Participation by 51 such means shall constitute presence in person at a meeting. At any 52 meetings of the commission conducted by means of a conference telephone 53 call, conference video call or similar communications equipment, other 54 than executive sessions, the public shall be given an opportunity to 55 listen. If a meeting other than an executive session is to be conducted 56 by means of a conference telephone call, conference video call or simi-S. 5571 5 1 lar communications equipment, the public notice for the meeting shall 2 inform the public that such equipment will be used, and identify the 3 means by which the public may listen to such meeting. 4 6. Advisory committees. The commission may form such advisory commit- 5 tees as it deems necessary, convenient, or desirable to advise and 6 assist in performing the duties conferred by this act. 7 7. Hearings. The commission shall hold at least four public hearings 8 where members of the public shall be provided an opportunity to present 9 oral and/or written testimony relevant to the commission's study. Prior 10 to the public hearings, the commission shall request from, review, and 11 consider written input with respect to its mission from relevant stake- 12 holder organizations, including, but not limited to: Brooklyn Community 13 Bail Fund, Conference of Mayors, Correction Officers' Benevolent Associ- 14 ation, District Attorneys Association of the State of New York, New York 15 State Association of Counties, New York State Association of PBAs, New 16 York State Bail Bondsman Association, New York State Correction Officers 17 and Police Benevolent Association, New York State Court Clerks Associ- 18 ation, New York State Magistrates Association, Patrolmen's Benevolent 19 Association of the city of New York, Police Conference of New York, The 20 Association of Towns of the State of New York, and The Bronx Freedom 21 Fund. 22 8. Reimbursement. The members of the commission shall receive no 23 compensation for their services, but shall be allowed the actual and 24 necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their duties pursuant 25 to this act. Such reimbursements shall be disbursed from the general 26 fund. 27 9. Report. The commission shall issue an interim report to the gover- 28 nor and the legislature of its findings, conclusions and recommendations 29 one year after the effective date of this act. A final report shall be 30 issued to the governor and legislature two years after the effective 31 date of this act including further findings, conclusions, and recommen- 32 dations by the commission and legislative proposals as it deems neces- 33 sary to implement such recommendations. 34 § 2. This act shall take effect January 1, 2022, and shall expire and 35 be deemed repealed two years after it shall have become a law. Effective 36 immediately, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regu- 37 lation necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective 38 date are authorized to be made and completed on or before such effective 39 date.
