Gov. Dannel P. Malloy took to the airwaves Wednesday to tackle some unfinished legislative business — the “Second Chance 2.0” criminal-justice reform bill still before the state Senate and House of Representatives.
Malloy pressed the case for a central plank of the bill — bail reform, to keep some 500 poor people at a time out of jail who’re there now simply because they can’t afford bail as low as $250.
Malloy made that case of Ray Dunaway’s WTIC morning show. Here’s a transcript, provided by the governor’s office:
Ray Dunaway: Right now let’s talk to Governor Dan Malloy. He is of course trying to get a bill through the legislature. It would be a special session obviously. Second Chance Society is the name of it – I’m sure you’ve heard about it. We’ve talked about it. And he’s here right now to tell you what the current status is. Good morning, Governor.
Gov. Malloy: Good morning — it’s great to be with you.
Ray Dunaway: Well it’s been a while, so it’s wonderful to have you on. So ok, Second Chance Society….just the case to be made is what?
Gov. Malloy: Well first of all, Connecticut has a crime rate that is at a 48-year low. Recidivism is down. We are doing really good work in cutting crime and lowering our prison population at the same time. It saves money to do this right now. It is costing us upwards of $33 million to incarcerate people basically because they’re poor. And let me explain that to you.
At any given time, we have upwards of 500 people in jail on bail that is as low as $250 – could be met with – as little as $250 to $2,000. That’s a lot of people in jail, because they are poor, because they can’t come up with that low amount of money. But it costs us $168 a day to keep them there. So we have people sitting in jail, awaiting trial, that we can keep there 30, 60, 90, 120 days when if they just had a few dollars they would be out of jail.
That is very expensive – $33 million a year in potential savings. But we’ve built into the budget that we just passed last week $15 million of savings based on Second Chance Society passing. That’s what we need to get done, so that we can save the people of Connecticut money. But also stop incarcerating people simply because they’re poor.
Ray Dunaway: So how would you address that? Would you change the rules concerning bonding? What would you do?
Gov. Malloy: There is a series of changes with respect to low level crimes that traditionally have bail in the $2,000 to $20,000 range. Now, to explain this to the public, most people make bail by paying a bail bondsman as little as 7 percent of whatever the bail is set. But if you don’t have that 7 percent or a way to raise it, you’re in jail. But it is costing you – you personally – $168 a day to keep that person in jail. And we are talking about for the most part non-violent misdemeanors and it’s just not cost effective.
Ray Dunaway: So in other words you would say ok for certain crimes bail still applies, but in a lot of crimes it would not.
Gov. Malloy: Correct.
Ray Dunaway: Now let’s talk about another difficult thing and I know you’ve been with ban the box and that’s certainly come up — I think…has that passed?
Gov. Malloy: Yes, yes – you can…an employer, perspective employer, can inquire about someone’s prior record once the initial review of that person’s application, resume or application has taken place.
Ray Dunaway: Ok, but the thing is and I’m thinking about this – let’s say you do ending up doing a jail term, a term in prison. And you get out and you really do…you’ve made an effort to rehabilitate yourself. And you know, it’s very difficult if you can’t find a job for you to do what you are supposed to be doing.
Gov. Malloy: It sure is and that’s another part of what we are trying to do. We are trying to make it easier for people who have paid the price for what they’ve done to get back to work. America is a second chance society country. If you are not a Native American or people weren’t brought here in slavery, everyone else came for a second chance. We go to church on Sunday to pray for second chances every single week. And we even invented bankruptcy rules because we understood that it didn’t make sense to have people in jail because they are poor.
Ray Dunaway: Alright we just have a few seconds here.
Gov. Malloy: But we lost our way and what I’m trying to say is let’s get people back to work.
Ray Dunaway: Ok and the status right now – we’ve got a couple of seconds here – still waiting for Brendan Sharkey? I think he’s for it, right? Is he not?
Gov. Malloy: Brendan’s for it. I think he wants to know that it’s going to pass. I know we can pass it in the Senate, so I’m hoping that we can get this done soon.
Ray Dunaway: And I guess you’d sign it?
Gov. Malloy: I would absolutely sign it – I’m trying to save people money.
Ray Dunaway: Hey Governor, thanks.
Gov. Malloy: Thanks.
