For Immediate Release: March 5, 2020
Contact: Reynolds Graves rgraves@skdknick.com 313.205.8675
Law Enforcement-Driven Crime Data on Criminal Justice Reform is Misleading
NEW YORK — In response to new crime data that the New York Police Department has attempted to link to recently enacted bail reform laws, Khalil Cumberbatch, Chief Strategist for New Yorkers United for Justice, made the following statement:
“Crime data, even if accurate, may have no connection to pretrial reforms and cannot reflect their full impact. Experts have substantial concerns and questions over this purported, law enforcement-driven connection that may simply not exist.
“In the interest of transparency, good faith dialogue, and truth over fearmongering, we insist that any conversation about the impact of criminal justice reform be holistic and draw on data that reflects the whole of our system and society. Specifically, we must examine how pretrial reforms support job retention, housing retention, and family unity — all factors proven to protect public safety and save taxpayer dollars. Without these data in the conversation, arrest data tells us nothing, especially since everyone who is arrested is presumed innocent.”
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