NEW YORK CITY — The state’s chief judge will announce plans to have the bail of any inmate independently reviewed within 10 days of their arrest to prevent suspects from being held simply because they don't have the funds to get out of prison, DNAinfo New York has learned.
Justice Jonathan Lippman is slated to make the announcement this morning at the Citizen’s Crime Commission’s Milsten Criminal Justice Forum in Manhattan.
The move comes in the wake of the suicide of Kalief Browder, 22, a Bronx man who had spent three years as a teen on Rikers Island for a minor robbery charge that was eventually dropped.
During his imprisonment, Browder endured beatings from guards and inmates and was subjected to long stints in solitary confinement without being convicted of any crime, according to news reports. He was so depressed after his confinement that he took his own life.
The centerpiece of Lippmann’s proposal calls for a judge who was not involved in a suspect's initial bail hearing to review the case after 10 days to ensure that the suspect’s bail was not punitive or set so high that they or their family could not pay it.
Further details of Lippman's plans were not immediately available.
Browder was arrested in May 2013 on Arthur Avenue in The Bronx after a teen accused him of robbing him of his backpack, according to The New Yorker.
Browder remained locked up on Rikers after his family couldn't raise his $3,000 bail.
He was offered a plea deal after 33 months, but insisted on his innocence and wanted to go to trial. By the time he was released in May 2013, he spent more than 400 days in solitary confinement, according to the Daily News.
