NYC’s Cash Bail Reform Success Takes On $2 Billion Industry

This story is part of Businessweek’s Cities issue, a collaboration with CityLab. Read more here.

Kevin says he scarcely remembers the night that threatens to ruin his life. Toward the end of a boozy evening last fall, he wound up in a basement apartment deep in the New York City borough of Queens. There was a fire there that night, and eventually, police would blame him for it. Four months later, he was in Queens County Criminal Court, facing felony charges of arson and reckless endangerment. (He maintains his innocence.) It would be up to the judge to ...