The historic bail reforms that passed in last year’s budget are among the most important civil rights reforms to pass this generation. New York’s prior bail laws embodied some of the most pernicious vestiges of Jim Crowe, and thousands of New Yorkers were caged because they could not afford bail, despite being presumed innocent. These injustices disproportionately impact the LGBTQ+ community, as LGBTQ+ people are three times more likely to experience incarceration, and 47% of trans women of color are incarcerated at some point of their lives. Once incarcerated, LGBTQ+ individuals frequently face physical and sexual violence, and barriers to housing and employment are only exacerbated.

The bail reform rollbacks that Governor Cuomo proposed are regressive and insulting. People could be remanded for misdemeanors for the first time in New York’s history. They rollbacks also effectively create a “dangerousness” standard, that will only increase the existing racial disparities in the criminal legal system. Notably, these rollbacks were proposed in the dead of night, during a global pandemic, without input from directly impacted community members. Noticeably, the rollbacks were proposed on Trans Day of Visibility, when many members of our community are reeling from last year’s untimely death of Lalyeen Polanco, a 27 year old Dominican trans women who died at in solitary confinement at RIkers because she could not afford $500 bail.  These changes to the bail statute are bad policy and they will increase rates of incarceration at a time when COVID-19 infection rates are more than 80 times higher in New York jails than the rest of New York. 

We hope that the Governor will reconsider his draconian changes to the bail statute, and that the legislature will wholeheartedly reject them.