New York's criminal justice reforms have enabled accused teenage thug Jordon Benjamin from being jailed without bail
Criminal-justice “reform” in New York has turned our courts into a merry-go-round, with violent offenders free to jump off at will.
The latest outrage took place in The Bronx, where 16-year-old Jordon Benjamin allegedly stabbed Amya Hicks in mid-December. Arrested a few days later, he was charged with felony assault and assorted lesser charges. Amya Hicks needed surgery and spent several days in the hospital. Benjamin was less inconvenienced: He only spent a few hours in a holding cell before being released on his recognizance, without having to post bail.
It’s bad enough that an alleged knife-wielding thug who slashes neighborhood women got to gallivant out of jail. But the story becomes downright enraging when we learn that Benjamin was already facing manslaughter charges — and the same judge let him out twice.
On Christmas Eve 2019, young Benjamin and some of his mates allegedly took time out from their holiday festivities to assault Juan Fresnada, a 60-year-old Bronx man. They stomped on him and brained him with a garbage can. Fresnada died, and Benjamin and his crew got away with $1.
In his brief career, Benjamin is already the beneficiary of multiple aspects of New York state’s criminal-justice “reform” measures, which our progressive leaders and professional activist class have hailed as “monumental” steps to “create a fairer and more humane” system, in the words of Mayor de Blasio.
Benjamin was originally held in a youth correctional facility until he was released in March because of the pandemic. This was part of a massive drawdown in the city’s jail population, which dovetailed with the push to free as many inmates as possible in expectation of closing Rikers Island.
“The number of New Yorkers held in NYC jails has plummeted, shrinking by 27 percent in 10 weeks, a steeper population decline than in all of last year,” boasted the mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice in May. “The jail population is at a number not seen since 1946.”
This would be fantastic news — if the decline in the inmate population was a function of a lower crime rate. But when it’s artificially imposed, it’s hardly cause for celebration. And while it may make sense to let certain nonviolent, older prisoners out of jail for health concerns, there is no evidence that teenagers like Benjamin, being held at juvenile correction facilities, are especially vulnerable to COVID-19.
The extent to which the mass release of juvenile prisoners in March was a political decision, and not driven by “the science,” can be seen by the fact that as violence spiked throughout the spring, the city hesitated to release teenagers arrested for serious crimes. After balancing their low medical vulnerability against public-safety concerns, the number of detained youth rebounded to pre-pandemic levels by May.
This means that letting an alleged violent offender like Benjamin out in March was a big mistake, and one that the city quickly stopped making as shootings and stabbings spiked rapidly.
One would think that after allegedly committing another vicious assault this month, Benjamin would have at least been locked up. But Bronx County Supreme Court Acting Justice Denis Boyle decided to let him go, though he now faces separate charges of manslaughter and felony assault.
Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration, defended Boyle’s move, stating, “Judges follow the law, and the law clearly states that the least restrictive alternative should be the preeminent driver in bail consideration.”
The law Chalfen references is the infamous state bail “reform,” which eliminated cash bail for most non-violent offenses, which even de Blasio has cited as a contributing factor to the rise in violent crime. But the law doesn’t actually mandate “least-restrictive” alternatives for people accused of committing violent felonies, nor for individuals under probation or supervision or for “persistent offenders.”
But the current climate is permissive and encourages judges, cops and prosecutors to operate under the assumption that confinement is always the worst option. So they err in favor of criminals. Surely Jordon Benjamin is happier to be out of jail than in it while he awaits his trials for manslaughter and serious assault. Meanwhile, best of luck to the next person who has an unpleasant encounter with him.
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Why won’t NYC keep violent suspects behind bars?
By Post Editorial Board
December 29, 2020
Just what exactly do criminals have to do to be kept behind bars in New York? After all, being arrested in connection with a murder — a murder! — wasn’t enough to keep Jordon Benjamin locked up. Not even did being hauled in a second time, for allegedly slashing a woman (while the murder case was still pending, no less), land him in jail.
It’s positively mind-boggling. And it helps explain why hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers have moved out this year.
As The Post reported Tuesday, 16-year-old Benjamin was allegedly part of a group of teens who attacked a 60-year-old man, Juan Fresnada, and his roommate on Christmas Eve last year. A video shows Fresnada being savagely stomped on and beaten with a garbage can. He later died from his injuries, police say.
Benjamin was confined to a Brooklyn juvenile center on a manslaughter charge but let loose by Bronx Judge Denis Boyle in March due to concerns over the coronavirus. Freed to roam the streets, the teen allegedly slashed a young woman, Amya Hicks, in The Bronx this month.
So what did Boyle do? He let him go a second time. Despite Benjamin being charged with felony assault, attempted assault and misdemeanor weapons possession.
“This is crazy,” fumes Hicks’ mom, Tynisha Smith. Her daughter doesn’t have an order of protection against him, and Benjamin “hangs out” just two blocks away. “He can hurt another person.”
Court spokesman Lucian Chalfen insists Boyle followed the law, which requires judges to impose “the least restrictive alternative” when considering bail.
But if so, it only underscores the disaster of Albany’s 2019 bail reform, which made it almost impossible to keep a suspect locked up — or even to require cash bail to be posted prior to release.
Indeed, the “reform” was so rushed and poorly structured, lawmakers themselves felt the need to “fix” it this year, but still couldn’t get it right. They left judges’ hands tied, denying them a chance to consider the risk to public safety when deciding whether to free a suspect. (The changes this year also left threats to the safety of witnesses, whose IDs and other info must be made available to defense attorneys early in the prosecution.)
The more recent charges against Benjamin also highlight the insanity of officials’ decision to release inmates for fear of COVID spreading in jails and prisons. Surely, there must’ve been some way to keep a defendant charged in connection with a killing away from the public without spreading the virus.
Fueling the damage still more was the 2018 Raise the Age law, which upped the age of criminal responsibility in New York to 18, from 16.
Benjamin’s case proves Police Commissioner Dermot Shea right when he blasts the criminal-justice system for its revolving-door approach to dangerous criminals. The commish cites prosecutors and judges in particular for going easy on perps, an attitude that is driving up violent crime in the city: The NYPD is only “one part of the criminal-justice system,” he says. “We’re not the jury. We’re not the prosecutors.”
As of Dec. 20, murders are up 40 percent this year, burglaries 42 percent, auto thefts 68 percent and shootings nearly double. How high must the figures go — how many New Yorkers must be violently attacked — before lawmakers, prosecutors and judges decide enough is enough?
1 comment:
New York City and several others have seen a substantial increase in crime since Bond Reform was enacted. This will not change until the Bond Reform movement ends. That being said, Protect yourself.
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