Justice Reboot was implemented in 2015 to lower the prison population at Rikers Island. It was largely put in place after a scathing report by the New Yorker on an inmate who could not afford bail and was held for 3 years prior to having the charges dismissed. The goal was to lower the overall amount of prisoners including those that were pretrial detainees. Unfortunately, the program has done little to nothing to affect the overall prison population or the length of imprisonment for pretrial detainees. The city was unable to implement a pilot program that would call or email defendants to remind them of upcoming court dates due to the immense difficulty in gathering this information from detainees. The city is coming up short with answers on why the program failed to have the overall effect it had intended. Many believe that implementation of this kind of reform is extremely costly to an already overburdened system that simply does not have the time or resources to track individuals. 18 months after implementation the prison population remains unchanged according to a councilmember.
Undoubtedly, there are issues with the criminal justice system. There are long delays in detainees getting their cases resolved and there are many instances where jurisdictions are not following the letter of the law, the problem is that there is no quick fix. Bail reform has become the catch phrase of the moment. Everyone seems to be pointing to bail as the problem when in actuality the problem is much deeper and will not be resolved by removing a system that has worked for over a century. Rikers’ Justice Reboot is a prime example of how what looks good on paper does not always work in reality.