Because it's confusing but important, I'd like to explain in one thread how it happened that an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature & a theoretically Democratic governor ( @NYGovCuomo) just voted to lock up more innocent people in jail pretrial in the middle of a pandemic.

Until 2019, when a person was charged with any crime at all in NY, courts could & did set bail at arraignment. That meant the court, based on nothing more than an allegation in a police report, would name a sum of money; if you could pay, you'd go free, & if not you were jailed.

Wealthier people could fight their cases from the comfort of their own homes. Poorer people were kept in horrifying conditions until, usually, they pled guilty to get out. Some people refused to plead & were jailed for years until they finally got a trial or a dismissal.

This system persisted so long because prosecutors & judges were happy with it. In the era of mass incarceration, the # of arrests & prosecutions is overwhelming. Courts & DAs couldn't possibly keep up if everyone fought their case. It only worked if nearly everyone pled out fast.

In 2019, the Dems controlled the legislature for the first time in ~50 years. They stopped short of abolishing bail but limited it to only certain charges. It doesn't make sense to jail the poor & free the rich regardless of the (unproven) accusation, but at least it was better.

Bail reform went into effect on Jan. 1. NY jail populations plummeted—down by 1/3 from this time last year. Thanks to discovery reform passed at the same time, prosecutors had to disclose evidence early in a case rather than wait for the inevitable plea. https://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/crimnet/ojsa/jail_population.pdf

To be clear, if the state has real evidence against you, the bail & discovery reforms don't stop it from convicting you & sending you to prison for just as long. But the process is fairer & less likely to lock innocent people (or anyone) in inhumane conditions on Rikers Island.

Police, prosecutors, & Republicans (but I repeat myself) started fearmongering & blaming sensational crimes on the reforms, even before they went into effect. Gov. Cuomo & Senate Democratic leader @AndreaSCousins soon joined them in agitating for rollbacks. Why?

I don't like to speculate about Cuomo's motives. He doesn't care about much other than power. It may be he saw this as an opportunity to get back at various enemies on the left. As for @AndreaSCousins, she sees her job as protecting her incumbents, particularly in swingy seats.

The Dems won big in 2018, picking up a bunch of senate seats on conservative Long Island. They don't need those seats for their majority, but while they have them @AndreaSCousins is happy to throw the urban Democratic base under the bus to keep her Long Island members in office.

In February, @AndreaSCousins unveiled her proposal: abolish cash bail, but replace it with pretrial jail without bail. It would mean a return to coercing pleas by caging presumed-innocent people, but ASC infamously called it the "most progressive" bail reform in the country.

Meanwhile, the Dems' overwhelming majority in the Assembly doesn't depend on Long Island conservatives, so Assembly Speaker @CarlHeastie resisted rollbacks. He pointed out the law had only just taken effect & media coverage was sensational & inaccurate. https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Heastie-urges-colleagues-to-look-past-15030284.php

Then the coronavirus pandemic hit, & other states & countries started releasing people from crowded jails & prisons, especially pretrial detainees. NY has been slow to follow, & both Cuomo & @BilldeBlasio kept fighting to increase pretrial detention by rolling back bail reform.

There are currently 231 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Rikers Island, where people are crammed together without adequate soap or sanitizer. That's an infection rate of 51 per 1000 people. The rate in the U.S. as a whole is 0.71 per 1000 people. https://twitter.com/MollyGriffard/status/1245808115662106629?s=20

Most legislation in Albany happens in closed-door late-night sessions immediately before the budget is due on April 1. The budget bill has to pass, so the minority party (now the GOP) usually votes against it en masse & the majority (Dems) votes for it en masse.

Anything legislators don't want to be blamed for voting for—which it turns out is most things—can go in the budget bill. If convenient, you can later claim you opposed it, but you couldn't very well vote against the budget! It has to pass or the state gov't shuts down.

At the last minute, closed-door negotiations between @AndreaSCousins, Cuomo, & Heastie produced a bail reform rollback that looked nothing like what ASC touted in February. It doesn't abolish cash bail; instead, it increases the list of bail-eligible charges by at least 115 more.

Only 5 out of 40 Senate Dems voted against the bill: @JuliaCarmel__, @jessicaramos, @Biaggi4NY, @zellnor4ny, & @NYSenatorRivera. If a few more had joined them, they could have demanded a clean budget bill. Others were happy to pledge support, but they voted 'yes' when it counted.

Meanwhile, the Assembly didn't even have a legitimate vote. On Monday, they voted to give all their votes to the Speaker so they could shelter in place. If they want to vote no, they have to show up in Albany in person; otherwise they count as a yes on anything Heastie brings up.

Some brave assemblymembers showed up in Albany to vote no, including @yuhline, @AMDanQuart, @HarveyforNY, @Bobby4Brooklyn, @rontkim, @CatalinaCruzNY, & my own AM @JoAnneSimonBK52 (thank you!). Their impassioned speeches are streaming live here: https://nystateassembly.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=13&event_id=2598

In addition to rolling back bail reform, the budget bill—surprise!—includes several measures weakening last year's discovery reform. Now prosecutors will once again be able to conceal evidence from desperate people held in jail on unproven accusations until they give up & plead.

If you're a New Yorker, remember how your representatives voted this week, particularly the senators who like to portray themselves as progressives. I'm thinking of people like @SenGianaris, @LizKrueger, @BrianKavanaghNY, @LuisSepulvedaNY, @NYSenBenjamin, etc. Vote them all out.