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New 'Charge or Release' Study |
Tens of Thousands Still Detained Longer Than Law Allows, Study Finds Coalition responds with rally for "Charge or Release" bill
January 31, 2006 -- More than one third of people who are arrested and arraigned in New York City must wait over 24 hours in jail before even seeing a judge or being informed of the charges against them, according to a New York Civil Liberties Union study released today. This pattern of long processing times means that people arrested even for minor offenses may have to leave children without childcare, miss days of school, or lose their jobs, all because the justice system cannot process them within the period of time mandated by the courts.
New Yorkers responding to the findings rallied on City Hall steps today to urge the City Council to reintroduce and pass the Charge or Release bill, which aims to solve the prolonged detention problem.
The new study, "Justice Delayed, Justice Denied: A Study of Arrest-to-Arraignment Times in New York City," analyzes 13 months of NYPD data and finds that the police detain thousands of New Yorkers each month for 30, 40, or even 50 hours before arraigning them. Each of these prolonged detentions defies a 1991 ruling in which the Court of Appeals held that the New York Police Department and other city agencies are legally obligated to present people for arraignment within 24 hours of their arrest.
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Patriot Act: Where it Stands |
 Patriot Act : Where it Stands
The fight to reform the Patriot Act is far from over. Congress failed to include commonsense reforms to the Patriot Act that would target our precious anti-terrorism resources on suspected foreign terrorists rather than invading the privacy of innocent people through fishing expeditions into their financial, medical, library and Internet records.
The NYCBORDC is disappointed and deeply concerned with Congress' capitulation to the White House's opposition to modest but meaningful changes that would better protect the privacy and civil liberties of all American residents. But there are signs of progress on the issue.
The Patriot Act debate has come a long way in the last four years. When the Senate first voted on the Patriot Act, only one Senator opposed it -- on this year's reauthorization vote, that number increased ten-fold. And a bipartisan group of 52 Senators stood up to the administration and filibustered the reauthorization bill late last year.
In the House, bipartisan majorities supported bills to limit the reach of the Patriot Act by placing better checks and balances into the law -- moves that were ultimately overridden by the Republican House leadership at the behest of the Bush administration's knee-jerk opposition to common-sense reforms.
As many of you know, the struggle to reform the Patriot Act requires us to constantly be aware of the issues and make our voices heard. Do so by:
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