Sen. Jamaal Bailey, D-Bronx, speaks to criminal justice advocates at a rally in the state Capitol in Albany. Photo: Dan M. Clark.

The state's laws on cash bail, criminal discovery and the right to a speedy trial will go at least another week without reform by the Democrat-controlled state Legislature as lawmakers remain at an impasse on how to resolve their differences on those issues.

Conversations on whether to completely end cash bail in New York remain a major sticking point among lawmakers, but a proposal to reform criminal discovery may also be tweaked beyond the current version in the coming weeks.

Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, D-Brooklyn, said Democrats in his chamber met to discuss criminal justice reform this week, but haven't come to an agreement on on any of the major issues.

“We're kind of at an impasse right now on bail,” said Lentol, who chairs the codes committee in the Assembly and is involved in negotiations on criminal justice reform.

Lentol said there's been a lot of discussion within the conference on consolidating the two major bail reform proposals put forth by Democrats last year. State Sen. Michael Gianaris, D-Queens, has a bill that would end monetary bail altogether, while a proposal from Assemblywoman Latrice Walker, D-Brooklyn, would have kept it for more serious crimes.

Walker said earlier this month she was planning to reintroduce a bill on bail reform, though the new version is still being worked out. Gianaris' legislation to end cash bail was reintroduced in January, but his conference hasn't brought it to the floor for a vote. Lentol said not all Democrats in the Senate may be willing to support the legislation without an agreement with the Assembly.

“I don't think their bill had much success in their conference either,” Lentol said. “They have a position that their conference might not support, and we amended our bill to match theirs and now we might have lost some support.”

Gianaris was not immediately available to comment on the progress of discussions on bail reform among Democrats in the Senate.

But while negotiations on bail continue, a two-way agreement on criminal discovery reform may be amended before it becomes part of the final package. Lentol said opposition to the bill from the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York has caused some to take a step back on the proposal, which would significantly shorten the amount of time by which prosecutors must exchange material with the defense that they intend to use at trial.

“I think bail is the most difficult of the three and discovery has seemed to fall into its own difficulty because the district attorneys think they can stop it by pleading with some of the interest groups,” Lentol said.

State Sen. Jamaal Bailey, a Democrat from the Bronx who chairs the Codes Committee in the upper chamber, said they're still in the midst of discussions on a final bill to reform criminal discovery. The same is true, Bailey said, for legislation intended to shorten the amount of time defendants wait before their day in court, often referred to as speedy trial reform.

“We're trying to make sure we've understood the concerns of every member and that they're being considered,” Bailey said. “It's something that we have to make sure we're deliberative about, and get it right instead of just getting it done.”

A similar position is held by Albany County District Attorney David Soares, a Democrat who currently serves as the head of DAASNY. Soares said the state's prosecutors have been individually reaching out to their elected officials to voice their concerns on the current criminal justice reform proposals and that their perspective should be considered before lawmakers take up a final package of bills.

“I don't want the demagoguery to get in the way of progressing on this front for reform. I just wish we could get to a table, let's air out our concerns and let's pass reform this year,” Soares said. “But we have to do it being mindful of the concerns of victims, witnesses, and people who are indigent and unable to receive the level of services in the criminal justice system that the wealthy do receive.”

He said he's hoping to meet with leadership in the Legislature in the coming weeks to discuss how the current proposals could be changed to address their concerns. Soares said there's been a misconception that prosecutors are opposed to reform out-right, but that that's not true.

“We are not saying no to reform and we have tried to make that clear,” Soares said.

Criminal justice advocates, who held the largest rally on those issues this year at the state capitol Wednesday, said the opposite. They blame prosecutors for the delay from lawmakers on enacting reforms to the state's laws on bail, criminal discovery and speedy trial.

Tina Luongo, the Legal Aid Society's criminal practice chief, criticized efforts by DAASNY to halt the current proposals, particularly on discovery reform.

“It is time we stop the delay. It is time we call for accountability and transparency,” Luongo said. “It has been 40 years since we've been trying to get discovery reform and every single year they fight it.”

The rally was held against the backdrop of several public defender groups traveling to Albany for their annual lobby day Wednesday. Attorneys met with several public officials to make their case for various issues related to public defense, including criminal discovery reform.

Among those lawyers was Andrew Kossover, a defense attorney from New Paltz who serves as legislative chair of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He was part of a group that met privately with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.

Kossover declined to discuss the conversation but said public defenders had been making the rounds with elected officials throughout the day to make their case on relevant issues, including discovery.

“It's an informative day,” Kossover said.

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