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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Advocates Push for More Comprehensive Bail Reform

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Thursday, March 22, 2018   

ALBANY, N. Y. – Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to reform the system of cash bail in New York, but some groups say his reforms don't go far enough.

Sixty-three percent of people held in jails around New York State have not been convicted of a crime, but can't afford the bail to secure their release. In Senate Bill 7505/Assembly Bill 9505, the governor proposes ending the current cash-bail system for people charged with misdemeanors or nonviolent felonies.

But critics of the proposal say his plan would force people charged with a crime to pay for electronic monitoring and other services while awaiting trial. Kesi Foster, an organizer for Make the Road New York, calls that approach "fundamentally flawed."

"We are talking about people who have not gone to trial yet and should be considered and presumed innocent," said Foster. "So, there's still a punishment that's involved in the governor's proposal."

Supporters of electronic monitoring note that nationally, one-third of defendants released while awaiting trial don't comply with discharge requirements, including court appearances.

But Foster contends the governor's plan would allow private companies to continue profiting off a system that disproportionately affects people who are poor, and communities of color. He added that the governor also wants to increase the number of misdemeanors for which there would be no pretrial release.

"In that way, it's actually taking a huge step backwards by expanding the number of people that can be held without the possibility of being released before they even go to trial," Foster said.

While the governor's proposal would reduce the number of people in pretrial detention, Foster believes that by including required payment for monitoring services, and expanding offenses with no pretrial release, the reforms would fall short of the desired goal.

"To ensure that New York is holding significantly less people in cages before trial, and that we're eliminating the practice of wealth-based detention," he said.

The governor's bill is included in the state budget proposals, which are due to be in place by April 1.



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