WASHINGTON, DC – FWD.us President Todd Schulte issued the following statement today in response to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 2019 Justice Agenda:

“We were encouraged to hear the Governor’s commitment to ending cash bail and enacting speedy trial and discovery reforms at today’s unveiling of his 2019 Justice Agenda. Every day, 16,000 New Yorkers are in jails on bails they cannot afford and it’s holding us all back. Senseless pretrial jailing harms New York’s families, communities, and economy, even as it undermines the legitimacy of our criminal justice system.

New York has the chance to lead the country by enacting meaningful bail reform that protects the presumption of influence by maximizing pretrial liberty, ensures due process for people accused of crimes, significantly reduces the number of people jailed both upstate and downstate, and eliminates wealth and race-based detention. We look forward to seeing the Governor’s detailed reform proposal and prioritization on the legislative calendar in the first 100 days.”