In one case, prosecutors asked for $50,000 bail for a man with no priors busted for stealing packages. He wound up at Rikers Island and slept on a bus for two days.
In a second case, prosecutors sought $45,000 bail for a homeless man with less than $100 to his name charged with a misdemeanor. A third case involved a wheelchair-using older man hit with $20,000 bail for misdemeanor assault, even though his senior citizens home was fine with taking him back.
All three were cited in an open letter sent Tuesday by state legislators and public defender groups calling on the city’s five district attorneys to stop seeking bail for defendants with medical conditions and those who can’t pay — and to stop opposing supervised release.
The jail population has doubled since July 2020, a period that has roughly coincided with a spike in violent crime. Meanwhile, 12 people have died at Rikers jails since December 2020.
“Throughout the year, a rising jail population has led to the steady degradation of the conditions at Rikers,” the letter states. “There is no doubt that the driving cause behind it remains the decision of your offices to seek bail recklessly and in virtually every eligible case. Those decisions now leave thousands of poor New Yorkers—mostly Black and Brown—to endure torture every day.”
A number of those signing the letter visited Rikers on Sept. 13, a tour that built enough political capital to persuade Gov. Hochul to sign the Less Is More Act, which eliminates jail for technical parole violations like missing curfew.
The city’s DAs have long insisted they look at look at each case on the merits and request bail only in cases where it’s necessary, particularly involving violent crime. Still, last week Manhattan DA Cy Vance Jr. reportedly directed his line prosecutors to temporarily not seek bail on nonviolent crimes committed by nonviolent offenders.
The defenders groups cited eight cases in their letter, but declined to provide any further details on them. A demonstration was set for Wednesday morning outside Vance’s offices in lower Manhattan to press the groups’ demands.
