HAUPPAUGE, NY – New York has recently changed bail laws that prevent cops from locking up drug dealers and district attorneys from keeping them behind bars.
This week, Governor Kathy Hochul signed into a law, a bill that would give the state’s judges more leniency and discretion to set drug dealers free.
The governor said the new bail reform laws are meant to provide fairness and equity to perpetrators facing criminal prosecution.
“I know that changing bail laws won’t solve all our problems. I never said it would,” Hochul said in a speech.
Suffolk County County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney is worried that the new bail reform laws will hamper his ability to keep drug dealers, especially those pushing deadly fentanyl-laced product in his county, will let more dealers go free.
Under the new law, judges can no longer make their decision based on the defendant’s risk posed to the community. It’s the only state in America with such a restriction.
“Despite an epidemic of fentanyl deaths, under the new bail laws we still cannot even ask for bail for fentanyl dealers unless they deal enough to kill 134,000 people, they get arrested for dealing while out on bail or until we can establish that they actually killed someone,” Tierney said. “Although a small step in the right direction, the recent changes to our bail laws enacted in the NY State Budget do not change the list of qualifying offenses for which prosecutors are allowed to ask for bail. New York also remains the only state where Judges cannot consider the danger to the community posed by a defendant when considering bail. Therefore, as a whole, the changes are woefully inadequate to address the various public safety crises we are now facing.”
