Eric Adams urges New York to toughen bail laws, Raise the Age

Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday urged state lawmakers in Albany to toughen bail laws and make changes to Raise the Age legislation as he advocated for New York City’s needs.

Testifying at a remote hearing on Governor Hochul’s $62 billion executive budget plan – on what became known as ‘Tin Cup Day’ in Albany when the mayor lobbied the city’s budget priorities city ​​to state – Adams reiterated his calls for changes in the state budget. bail laws to allow judges to send dangerous criminals to jail.

Hizzoner also supported changes to the state’s Raise the Age law, saying it is currently being “used to victimize our young people.”

“Too many New Yorkers in their late teens and early twenties have abused this change, demanding that young people under the age of 18 take responsibility for weapons that aren’t really theirs,” he said. he declared.

The mayor called on the state to provide urgent funding to expand mental health resources and provide additional beds for those in critical need of mental health care — especially for “New Yorkers who pose a danger to them.” themselves and for others”.

“Too many of our fellow New Yorkers are placed in temporary care and released before they are ready, often due to the limited availability of long-term support and housing,” Adams said.

“We now face a humanitarian crisis on our streets and on our public transit system that threatens the safety and recovery of our city, and we can no longer afford to leave this issue unaddressed.”

Adams has repeatedly said he wants to toughen the 2019 law by allowing judges to send dangerous suspects to jail.

But Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins ​​(D-Yonkers) had already pushed Adams away before the hearing, arguing that she saw no compelling reason to change the bail law that eliminated bail. cash bail for most misdemeanors and “non-violent”. “criminal crimes.

“We don’t want to criminalize poverty,” Stewart-Cousins ​​said Tuesday, referring to defendants who can’t afford to post bail.

She expressed concern about a crime spike that has plunged the Big Apple into violence, but insisted that “there is no connection between our bail reform and the national crime spike that I think we all want to fight and we should fight collectively.”