NYC Mayor Adams tones down bail reform rhetoric in apparent pre-election boon to Gov. Hochul

Mayor Adams dialed down his tough talk on the state’s bail reforms over the weekend after maintaining for months that they’re to blame for the city’s crime uptick — extending a pre-election olive branch to Gov. Hochul, who has been reluctant to heed Hizzoner’s calls for rolling back the reforms.

Adams offered the tone shift on bail reform in a virtual press conference Sunday that capped off a two-day criminal justice summit at Gracie Mansion.

The mostly closed-door summit was attended by a long list of local prosecutors, public defenders, criminal justice reform advocates and government officials, including Hochul’s chief counsel, Elizabeth Fine, according to an invite list provided to the Daily News. Discussions revolved around ways to find “common ground” on public safety — but largely stayed clear of the hot-button issue of bail reform, Adams said in the press conference.

“Anytime we engage in this conversation around the criminal justice system, people highlight one term and that is bail reform. There are so many other aspects of the criminal justice system that we were able to talk through and discuss, and we were extremely pleased with the conversations we had,” Adams told reporters.

New York Cty Mayor Eric Adams

Adams’ pivot away from bail reform contrasts his previous focus on the issue.

Since last year’s mayoral race, Adams has attributed pandemic-era spikes in some crime categories to the state Legislature’s 2019 bail reforms, which eliminated cash bail and pre-trial detention for most nonviolent offenses.

“The overall system is failing New Yorkers by allowing repeat offenders back out on the streets over and over again,” Adams said in August of the reforms.

In addition to opposing the reforms, the mayor has previously proposed taking it a step further by pushing the state Legislature to institute a “dangerousness” standard in the bail laws that would give judges discretion to mandate pre-trial detention based on their personal view of a defendant. He has also advocated for allowing prosecutors to try some teenage defendants in criminal court.

Asked in Sunday’s press conference if he maintains those views, Adams declined to give a straight answer and reiterated he’s focused on “common ground.”

“We must focus on a holistic approach,” he said. “The goal this weekend was to say, ‘Hey, let’s find our common ground. What are the common grounds we have?’ We’re going to have disagreements, we’re going to have things that some believe is more of a top priority than others, but what are the common grounds?”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul

Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran Democratic political strategist and former Port Authority cop, said he sees Adams’ decision to let bail reform take a backseat as a boon to Hochul, who’s in a tight reelection race against Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin.

“Bail reform immediately gets people focused and afraid, and if the mayor mentions bail reform as a problem, he injures his fellow Democrats and the governor, who are fighting in tough races right now,” he said. “Adams changing course is an indirect help to the governor.”

Hochul and Democratic leaders in the state Legislature have signaled they are not interested in acting on Adams’ past demands for tweaks to the bail laws. They’ve pointed to data from the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services showing that the 2019 legislative action did not result in a spike in recidivism among defendants — seemingly debunking the claim from critics that the reforms are to blame for recent crime spikes.

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.)

To that end, Adams’ past rhetoric on the bail issue has been in line with talking points pushed by Zeldin, putting the mayor in an awkward position with the incumbent Democratic governor.

“Zeldin’s rise has even had to do with bail reform,” Sheinkopf said, pointing to recent polls showing Hochul only holding single-digit percentage point leads over the GOP candidate, with two weeks to go until the Nov. 8 election.

Lining up with messaging more widely embraced by elected New York Democrats, Adams said in Sunday’s press conference that his team left this weekend’s summit with a renewed focus on reforming the state court system’s discovery process and increasing access to mental health services.

A lack of focus in those areas, Adams said, is detrimental to public safety.

“This system is not built for the 21st century,” he said.

The Legal Aid Society, a public defender group that often criticizes Adams, offered support for the mayor’s post-summit agenda.

“What is clear from this summit is that we share an interest in resolving these issues,” Legal Aid said in a joint statement with two other like-minded groups, the Bronx Defenders and the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem. “We must all commit to investing in community health services and data-proven solutions to the mental health crisis before, during, and after entanglement with the criminal legal system.”

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