New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in Albany on Tuesday that he would support allowing the state's judges to use a “tightly defined” measure of a defendant's “dangerousness,” or threat to public safety, to decide if they should be incarcerated before trial as part of legislation to overhaul the state's current system on cash bail.

De Blasio told reporters at the state capitol that his office has been involved in conversations with the Legislature on upcoming reforms to the state's laws on bail, criminal discovery and the right to a speedy trial, and that he expects those reforms to be included in the state budget over the next week.

“I do think there's a good chance criminal justice reform will be in, we're very much involved in those conversations with all the leaders and members as well,” de Blasio said. “It's the right thing to do morally and it's the right thing to do for the taxpayer.”

He also came out in support of allowing judges to assess whether a defendant should be perceived as a threat to public safety, which would require them to be held in jail before their trial. That measure, called dangerousness, is not currently used that way by judges in New York when deciding what should happen to a defendant after their arraignment.

“We also have to be smart about addressing the question of how to empower judges in those rare but very important cases where someone does need to be held because they pose a very immediate danger to a community—not a flight risk necessarily, but a real, immediate danger—we have to find some way to address that,” De Blasio said

The measure is strongly opposed by members of the state Assembly who are involved in negotiations around bail reform. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, told reporters Monday that Democrats in the chamber haven't budged on the issue.

“We still believe that the whole essence of bail was to ensure that people showed up and it was to deal with flight risk,” Heastie said Monday. “So there is a concern about judging whether people should show up based on some view of who and what they are. If the requirement is for people to show up, that's what we should really be basing things on—people's ability to show up.”

The topic has been a major sticking point in the debate on bail reform, which has largely stalled lawmakers from passing changes to the state's laws on criminal discovery and the right to a speedy trial. Democrats have said they want to pass all three together because of how they relate to each other.

But Democrats in the Assembly fear that allowing dangerousness to be used as a factor when deciding pretrial detention could lead to outcomes that would be discriminatory toward low-income individuals and people of color. They've argued, as Heastie said, that bail should be entirely about ensuring an individual's return to court, rather than deciding their alleged threat to public safety.

De Blasio said he understands those concerns and expects there will be a way to allow dangerousness, but that it should be defined in a narrow way that acknowledges and works against the possibility of bias.

“I think folks who are worried about a loose definition leading to discrimination have a very valid concern,” de Blasio said. “A tightly defined measure says there's something beyond just flight risk, there's some consideration if a judge has real hard evidence that someone could pose a danger to community.”

He said, as an example, that judges could use past parole violations as a factor in making that decision. Lawmakers have yet to identify exactly what factors would be used by judges to decide pretrial detention if they eliminate cash bail.

Even Gov. Andrew Cuomo has declined more than once to directly answer whether he would personally support an inclusion of dangerousness in any bail reform proposal. His counsel, Alphonso David, did point out during a recent press conference that every other state in the country uses a similar measure, suggesting that it wouldn't be unusual for New York to do the same.

Cuomo has said he won't approve a state budget that doesn't contain criminal justice reform, including legislation on bail. He supports ending cash bail and included such a proposal in his executive budget earlier this year, though sources have said allowing a monetary component to remain to some degree is still on the table.

Lawmakers will have to come to an agreement over the next week if those reforms are to be included in the state budget. The $175 billion spending plan is due at the end of the coming weekend.

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