Chief Judge Janet DiFiore in 2019. (Photo: David Handschuh/NYLJ)

In her annual State of the Judiciary address Wednesday, New York State Chief Judge Janet DiFiore said she wants to see more judicial discretion allowed in the state's new bail reform law.

Judges should be able to consider whether defendants pose a "credible risk of danger," she said.

"I believe that without compromising the purity of its purpose, the new legislation can be amended and strengthened to recognize a narrow exception allowing judges, after a full and fair adversarial hearing, to detain a defendant in those few and extraordinary cases where such a credible threat exists," she said.

The state's top judicial official also spoke at length about her proposal to reorganize the court system.

"Given a blank slate upon which to create a court system, no rational person would ever design the system we have in place today," DiFiore said. "Our current structure simply does not serve the public well."

DiFiore said she recently met with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and was told they would "explore the issues thoroughly." She also thanked Gov. Andrew Cuomo for supporting the goal of court simplification in his 2021 budget.

Under DiFiore's proposal to amend the state constitution, announced in September, New York's 11 trial courts would be consolidated into a three-tier system, including a centralized state Supreme Court, a Municipal Court, and the current town and village courts.

The state Supreme Court would eliminate many of the state's current trial courts and fold them into a unified entity with six divisions: family, probate, criminal, state claims, commercial and general. The Municipal Court would be composed of many of the state's more localized courts.

The plan would reduce unnecessary court appearances and associated costs for litigants, including child care and transportation, DiFiore said.

She acknowledged that some court officials have had reservations about the plan, but she said the changes can be absorbed in the budget. Judges in the eliminated courts are expected to stay on the bench in the newly consolidated courts, according to the plan, which will also preserve the status quo in terms of which judges are elected and which are appointed.

"Importantly, we do not intend to reduce our number," she said. "No jobs, I repeat, no jobs—not one—will be lost due to court simplification. Frankly, the system is under-resourced and one of the major benefits of simplification will be to maximize the efficiency and productivity of the resources now at our disposal."

The proposal will also make it easier for the legislature to add a Fifth Judicial Department, she said.

In a statement, New York Civil Liberties Union policy counsel Nicole Triplett responded to DiFiore's bail reform stance, saying that attempting to predict defendants' dangerousness "inevitably deepens the racial inequalities that bail reform was meant to address in the first place."

"Using risk assessments or attempting to predict someone's future dangerousness is guesswork that will simply shift the methods we use to put innocent people behind bars," Triplett said. "The evidence shows that it is nearly impossible to accurately predict whether someone will commit a crime in the future."

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