On Sunday, Mayor Eric Adams briefed the media on his two-day “Criminal Justice Mayors Summit” he just held with the city’s district attorneys, but was reluctant to give important details.
In addition to downplaying the role controversial state bail reform laws may play in the rise of urban crime, Hizzoner and his team used terms like “infrastructure” and “elements”. Urgent action, “which left more questions than answers.
“We have a problem with the infrastructure of our criminal justice system,” Adams told reporters on a conference call, referring to discussions between his office and district attorneys, law enforcement, state attorneys, judges and attorneys during the weekend. “This antiquated infrastructure is impacting New Yorkers’ ability to demand justice at both ends of the spectrum.”
City hall plans to form task forces with various participating entities to focus on early discovery, mental health and “urgent measures,” officials said.
But Adams offered few details on what exactly the criminal justice system needs to change, other than his desire to create a “one-stop shop” for preliminary discovery and reduce the time defendants spend awaiting their trial so relatively short.
Officials are also hoping to introduce what they called “treatment vans” to greet defendants leaving their first court appearances and offer them mental health resources, Mayor and City Hall Chief Counselor Brendan McGuire.
“Obviously we’re just out of this, and so we’re still making the urgent action list,” McGuire told reporters.
City Hall held the summit just two days after the mayor criticized the media for fueling a “narrative” that New York City and its huge subway system are unsafe. Violent crime increased by 39% in August across the city from 2019, according to the NYPD.
However, on Sunday Hizzoner downplayed the role of bail reform in the city’s crime and recidivism crisis, echoing comments earlier this weekend that there are “many rivers in the sea of violence.”
“Whenever we engage in this conversation about the criminal justice system, people point to a term, and it’s ‘bail reform,'” the mayor said.
“There are so many other aspects of the justice system that we have been able to touch upon and discuss.”
