CONTACT: Mariah McGough, mariah@vocal-ny.org

VOCAL-NY CONDEMNS MAYOR ADAMS’ CONTINUED EFFORTS TO SEND MORE NEW YORKERS TO JAIL

VOCAL-NY Leaders Joined Allies at a Rally Today to Protest Efforts to Rollback Bail Reform

NEW YORK — In response to a press conference today where NYC Mayor Eric Adams shifted blame to judges and prosecutors for New York City’s crime, and ultimately called for more people being sent to jail, VOCAL-NY released the following statement:

“Mayor Adams and his administration have once again turned to fear mongering by exaggerating and cherry-picking cases to justify more rollbacks to bail reform,” said Jon McFarlane, a leader with VOCAL-NY’s Civil Rights Union. “Adams should look to his own failed pro-carceral policies in explaining the uptick in crime, while also stepping up to explain his silence with regard to officers leaving teenagers bloodied in the subway. Instead of pulling out outlier cases to argue for tweaks to bail reform, Mayor Adams should invest in resources that will uplift the most marginalized communities dealing with an unprecedented rise in poverty, a collapsing infrastructure, substandard educational resources, and employment levels that are at its lowest in years.”

“The Mayor is wrong to blame bail reforms for rising crimes. We fought for years to pass bail reform to ease the crisis of mass incarceration in New York City and New York State. Under our system of jurisprudence, people are innocent until proven guilty. We are not supposed to be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. For the Mayor to seek to execute the punishment of imprisonment pre-trial, without any due process, is to undermine the rule of law – this we must not allow,” said D’Juan Collins, a leader with VOCAL-NY’s Civil Rights Union. “If Mayor Adams wants to rollback anything he can start at home first with the NYPD and end qualified immunity now.”

BACKGROUND:

Every year since 2017 fewer than 10% of all felony cases end in a sentence of prison time, with just 3% of cases in 2021 ending that way. In 2021 the vast majority of felony cases ended in either dismissal (56%) or misdemeanor or non-criminal disposition (25%).

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