City Puts Up $18M to Help 3,000 People Remain Free While Awaiting Trial
(DNAINFO) Jeff Mays — Nonviolent criminals who are being held behind bars because they can’t afford to post bail would be placed into a supervised release program through a $17.8 million plan announced Wednesday by Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The program would free up to 3,000 people accused of non-violent felony crimes who would otherwise languish in the city’s jails because they are too poor to post relatively low cash bail amounts before their case goes to trial, the city said.
“Money bail is a problem because — as the system currently operates in New York — some people are being detained based on the size of their bank account, not the risk they pose,” de Blasio said in a statement.