![]() Lawlor, an adviser to the governor, reviewing bail language in 2017. That is one thing that is almost unique about the United States, and where Connecticut is falling a little bit behind the curve of reforms that you’re seeing elsewhere in the country.”ĬTMIRROR.ORG Jay Malcynsky, left, a lobbyist for the bail industry, and Michael P. “If I had the power to do one thing to improve the criminal justice system, I would eliminate money bail. 1 crime for which people are incarcerated is violation of probation,” said Lawlor, now an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven. Often, Lawlor said, they agree to a sentence of probation and, ultimately, get trapped in the criminal justice system. pressures people to plead guilty to get out of jail. Lawlor, a former legislator who was chair of the Judiciary Committee from 1995 to 2011, said the for-profit cash bail system - which, besides the Philippines, is unique to the U.S. Malloy, Michael Lawlor was among those who led the charge to end money bail in 2017. But unlike in Illinois, New Mexico, Washington, D.C., Alaska and California, Connecticut has not eliminated its cash bail system - and key members of the criminal justice community are not in favor of uprooting it.Īs the point person on criminal justice policy for former Gov. to cut its incarcerated population in halfsince its peak in 2008. Three years later, Connecticut legislators compromised with the powerful commercial bail industry and preserved elements of the cash bail system.Ĭonnecticut has been touted as a leader in criminal justice reform, becoming the first state in the U.S. New Jersey voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2014, largely ending cash bail and transitioning the state to a risk-based pretrial system. ![]() It’s indistinguishable from no bail at all.” “A lot of times, bails are set at levels where you might as well add a zero or two zeroes or three zeroes to it, because it’s just completely unrealistic, and it’s just a de-facto detention order. “That’s the Connecticut status quo,” said Alex Taubes, a civil rights attorney who appealed an emergency bond reduction motion all the way to the state Supreme Court in 2020. It was just that you had a right to bail.”Īttorneys say the situation is similar in Connecticut, which also allows for a constitutional right to bail except in capital cases. “But it was a totally ephemeral because courts did not interpret it to mean that you had a right to a bail that you could afford. “We had a provision of our constitution that required bail in all cases other than capital cases, and we didn’t have the death penalty, which meant you had bail in every case,” said Alexander Shalom, the senior supervising attorney and director of Supreme Court advocacy for the ACLU of New Jersey. CT MIRROR Chris Christie campaigning in Connecticut in 2014.
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