52% of people sitting in New York City jails had never been convicted of a crime, they just couldn’t make bail. More than half of those incarcerated in NYC jails are black, though the population is 16% Black.
But some Democratic officials are now saying that maybe the new bail reform law should be tweaked, and that maybe judges should have more say in whether a defendant gets bail, and that is causing something of a rift within the party itself.
Jumaane Williams and Lucy Lang will weigh in on the idea of allowing a judge to decide if a person should be issued bail because of past records or the nature of the crime.