Photo Courtesy of Sen. Addabbo
“I intend to stand with my colleagues in the State Legislature ready to do whatever is necessary to address the need to protect the people of our state,” Sen. Addabbo said.
By Forum Staff
State Sen. Joe Addabbo, Jr. (D-Howard Beach) recently noted that that Fiscal Year 2023 Enacted State Budget includes a number of public safety reforms to improve the protection of New Yorkers and make the criminal justice system more accountable. These changes allow judges to set bail for gun charges that previously only allowed for release, add circumstances judges must consider when setting bail for any bail-eligible offense, address Discovery and “Raise the Age” loopholes, improve the effectiveness of Kendra’s Law, and provides $90 million in new funding to support the implementation of discovery reform and pretrial services.
The Enacted Budget includes $227 million to strengthen the prevention of gun violence. This includes $13.1 million to expand the use of Community Stabilization Units, tripled investments in New York’s SNUG outreach program, $18 million in direct support to local law enforcement for gun violence prevention, $20 million to respond to the aftermath of gun violence, and $3 million for the Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
The enacted reforms will expand the list of factors that judges must consider when setting bail to include:
- Any previous violation of an order of protection, which currently only applies in domestic violence cases;
- History of gun use or possession, which currently only applies in domestic violence cases;
- Whether the charge is alleged to have caused serious harm to an individual or individuals.
Police would now be able to make arrests for all repeat offenses currently covered by the bail law. Those with repeat felonies and class A misdemeanors involving harm to a person or property will now be bail-eligible or arrest-eligible, as well as repeat theft of property offenses, with minimal exceptions for crimes of poverty. All hate crimes will become arrest-eligible if the individual is eighteen or older.
Judges can set bail for all felony gun offenses that are not currently bail-eligible including:
- Criminal sale of a firearm to a minor
- Criminal possession of a defaced firearm
- Criminal possession of an unloaded gun and arrest-eligible on a second offense
- Criminal possession of a gun on school grounds is already bail-eligible but not arrest-eligible, will now become arrest-eligible if the individual is eighteen years old or older
Prosecuting gun trafficking will now be easier, Addabbo said:
- The illegal sale of two or more guns (previously 5 guns) within a year, will now constitute a C felony
- The illegal sale of three or more guns (previously 10 guns) within a year will now constitute a B felony
- Possession of three or more guns (previously five guns) will constitute a presumption of the intent to sell, making it easier to bring forth charges
These new reforms will ensure that when a prosecutor cannot access discoverable material but has tried to obtain the material diligently and in good faith, the court can only issue sanctions and remedies that are proportionate to the nature of the missing material, and cases will not be automatically dismissed, Addabbo added.
“I intend to stand with my colleagues in the State Legislature ready to do whatever is necessary to address the need to protect the people of our state,” the senator said.
