New York is now considering landmark bail reform legislation. Proposed reforms would eliminate money bail and would allow judges to detain people before trial in limited circumstances. Ending money bail is important, but on its own it is not enough to achieve a fair and just pretrial system. Reducing pretrial detention must also be a central goal of the legislation. This can be done only through clear limitations on when and how judges can send people to jail pretrial.

In New York and across the country, bail reform is gaining momentum as the public learns how the money bail system discriminates based on wealth and race. Everyone can agree that no pretrial system should treat people differently based on the money in their bank accounts or the color of their skin. But in New York today, rich people accused of crimes can write a check and walk free while they await trial, while those who cannot afford to post bail must languish in jail for months or years until their case is resolved. Money bail disproportionately harms black, Brown and Latinx people accused of crimes who often have less personal and familial wealth than their white counterparts. Implicit and explicit racial biases make those disparities worse. Indeed, recent empirical research has found that money bail is imposed more often on black people than on white people and that black people receive higher bail amounts than white people.

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