POUGHKEEPSIE- Local drug dealers say New York State’s new bail reform law, which forbids judges from requiring bail for all but the most serious violent crimes, has been great for business, allowing them to continue to provide the product their customers depend on without interruption when associates are arrested.
“Just last week one of my guys got busted making a pickup in the Bronx,” said Sean Jackson, a Poughkeepsie-based cocaine and heroin dealer. “Thanks to bail reform, we were able to get him back on the street almost instantly so he could make his deliveries.”
Jackson and other local dealers say bail used to provide a number of difficulties for their businesses, which, they point out, as an industry is one of the region’s largest. They say judges, acting at the behest of the District Attorney, sometimes set bail very high in a bid to get dealers to pony up more cash than they should legally have, providing another way for law enforcement to go after them. They say they often had no other option but to let key members of their supply and distribution network languish behind bars awaiting trial, often for months, disrupting their operations, and leading customers to take their business elsewhere.
“It’s really a safety hazard,” said Zelda McCann, a Woodstock heroin dealer. “Our customers get dopesick and will buy from just about anyone, including those who don’t care if they’re selling poison. Lotta people have OD’d [overdosed] that way.”
McCann’s statements contradict the main criticism of the bail reform law: that it compromises public safety. Republican legislators have been calling for changes to the law that would give judges discretion to set bail when the accused is deemed potentially violent. It’s expected that those changes may be made in the coming months.
“That is unfortunate,” said Xavier Henderson, a New Paltz dealer of “whatever you’re looking for.” Henderson said discussions over bail miss the larger point: that those in his field are simply providing a product that rational adults should have the choice whether or not to consume. “Prohibition went into effect 100 years ago and we still haven’t learned its lessons,” he said. “How many fine, hard-working young people with excellent business acumen have had their lives ruined by the war on drugs? Especially young people of color coming from places without other opportunities?”
Others say bail reform is sending the wrong message.
“All this talk about how the criminal justice system affects those who choose to sell these deadly chemicals,” said Mike Hughes of the Partnership for a Drug-Free New York. “What about the effect drugs have on families across the state? It ranges from lost potential – for those locked into a regular habit that soaks up their extra money and energy – to death, which affects not just the addict but their entire family. There is an epidemic of despair, death and grief raging quietly across the state and we’re supposed to applaud measures that benefit criminals?”
Hughes said jail can serve as a place for addicts busted for possession to kick the habit. “Ask any cop— families will come to them begging them to arrest their son or daughter because they’re afraid they’re going to overdose. Many families who have the means to bail out their children don’t do it because they hope they’ll get clean behind bars. Now with bail reform, that’s not an option.”
Jackson, the Poughkeepsie dealer, disagrees. “If people want to stop using, they can get treatment, that’s not something the criminal justice system should be responsible for,” he said. “If someone doesn’t want to stop, there’s nothing you can do to make them stop. Nor should you. People have the right to do what they choose with their own bodies, and should never be deprived of their liberty for that choice. As Mill said, ‘The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.’”
