bail and crime is that they re not able to use statistics that link bail reform to an increase in so called violent crime. and in fact, if you look at major jurisdictions around the country where there has been bail reform in recent years, there is no such trend. um, if new york state, for example. professor i made the point at the outset that the data is i think pliable can be used easily to advance any kind of a case you d like to. so having said that. here i go. isn t it true that the doggy data the doj data and i ll put something up on the screen and i ll read it to you because you might not be able to see it, but it shows that financial bonds like cash bonds have a lower rate of pretrial misconduct. then when someone is released on their personal reconnaissance, in other words, there is it appears a relationship between misconduct awaiting trial if there s no cash bail that has been utilized. i can t see this
shin professor simonsen respond if you would please. to what you heard from mayor lightfoot. does she have the right answer. good morning. thank you for having me. uh what i do agree with mayor lightfoot about is that public safety is important and taking care of survivors of harm are important. but i disagree entirely with her characterization of what bail reform does and even what prosecution and incarceration do and i should add that the people of chicago disagreed as well. if we re thinking about perceptions of crime and safety lori lightfoot recently lost an election. so someone who is saying that public safety shouldn t always mean arrest, bail and prosecution. what is the data show? what does the data show? if you get rid of cash bail, you let people out on the street who otherwise wouldn t be out on the street. do they commit more crimes? no they don t. in fact, the what you ll notice when these mayors are making announcements about
behind the increases in crime rates, there are lots of headlines and political grandstanding, claiming that to be the case that with fewer people paying bail, people charged with crimes are out on the streets, and they re committing more crimes when someone s been arrested and charged with a crime, a judge or a magistrate may decide it s necessary to get the money guarantee to ensure that person is going to come back for a court hearing. but by its very nature, the system discriminates against poor people who can t afford to pay bail. so even though you re supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, many who are charged but not yet convicted, they end up behind bars. therefore some states have recently moved to reduce or even eliminate cash bail for lesser offenses in 2019, new york state adopted a law ending cash bail in most cases involving misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies. it led to an immediate backlash. and although lori lightfoot didn t use the words, cash bail, it s clearly
truth about violent crime in our city, we will be the worst for it. if we say yeah, the police department is spending all this time and resources to rest but a case on and then the judges and the prosecutors say, you know what? we re going to let you out on electronic monitoring to wreak havoc again. and if we don t call that out every single day with these prosecutors and with the judges, many of whom don t live in our city and don t care about what s happening, then we are going to lose an opportunity to advocate for the victims and the witnesses and a resident who just want in deserve peace. we gotta say it. she was one of the four black mayors leading america s biggest cities who gathered at the african american mayors association conference. new york city mayor eric adams made a similar point. we need to be honest and forthright about the small numerical number of people
homicides are way up. but again , the downtown accounted for a tiny proportion of such incidents in new york manhattan score accounted for 2% of the city s increase in violent crime 3% of its increase in property crime, extensive media coverage of the crimes that do occur in downtown areas may be having an impact on residents feeling that city centers. or crime ridden think of that age old local news mantra. if it bleeds, it leads. of course, crime in any part of the city is a problem. as the brookings institute study pointed out, pointing to the mismatch between where crime predominantly clusters and residents perceptions is not designed to delegitimize their concerns. or deny the impact that crime in other parts of the city can have on perceptions of downtown. rather it is to demonstrate the spatial distribution of crime has real implications for how local leaders can address it. okay. what about bail reform? is that