Not too long ago, Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes held a press conference in support of the bail reform changes, and she called the critics of the legislation 'fear mongerers.'
"Despite what you've read about in the media, violent criminals are not being released as a result of bail reform," she said. "This fear mongering is all it is - it's creating an opportunity to divide the electorate and creating an opportunity to divide people politically, and at the same time, it's actually harming people's lives if we go backwards on this issue."
At multiple points within Thursday morning's press conference, the assemblymen claimed that they are not fear mongering, they're simply stating facts.
"In Jamestown, we don't track the crime data on a monthly basis, but we saw is that we had 119 who failed to show up to court in January, because they have no bail at risk, compared to 59 last year - a 72% increase," said Chautauqua representative Andy Goodell. "Catch and release is great for fishing, but is a terrible criminal justice policy."
Niagara Falls representative Angelo Morinello became extremely heated during the press conference.
"Protecting victims while preserving defendants' rights is a balancing exercise, however, the drastic Criminal Justice Reforms, including Bail Reform, were drafted behind closed doors without input either from experts in the field or those with any experience, without consideration for victims," he said. "What you never hear is 'just don't break the law' and 'it's time to be responsible for the consequences of your actions.'"
So, what can be done for these legislators to move forward?
Giglio says there needs to be more bipartisan support from within the legislature, and that they need to sit down with professionals, judges, district attorneys and other stakeholders to make sure bail reform is being done the right way.
"They have to realize it's a problem and admit it, and so far, they're not willing to do that," said Giglio. "We need the governor to come on board and again realize that this is not working and help us call a moratorium of some kind to move forward. As the current legislation stands, this is the law of the State of New York, and it's not that easy to change, so we need cooperation from both majorities and the governor to help move it forward. We need them to admit that this is a serious and dangerous problem."