In 2019, the Republican conferences in the New York State Legislature argued stridently against the passage of Bail and Discovery reform on the floors of the New York State Assembly and Senate. This opposition did not come from political partisanship, but rather, it was formed by years of on the ground experience by our members who were former prosecutors and attorneys. We predicted then, as did many others, that the new laws wouldn’t work and would be a disaster for New York’s criminal justice system, particularly since none of the law enforcement stakeholders were consulted or even invited to be part of the drafting of the legislation.

The discovery reform legislation dramatically increased administrative burdens on already resource-strapped prosecutor’s offices with new requirements that set out an impossibly short timeframe for them to review and disclose all information and evidence from criminal cases. The result of them not being able to keep up has been the unacceptable and dramatic increase in dismissals of cases for solely technical reasons.