The state Senate has passed legislation that requires pre-arraignment detention lasts no longer than 24 hours without individualized explanations for the delay.

S.1184 was approved 42-21 recently, with state Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, voting against the bill. It still needs to be approved in the state Assembly before it can be sent to Gov. Andrew Cuomo for his consideration. A similar bill passed the Senate in 2020 but failed to be passed the state Assembly’s Codes Committee.

The legislation is sponsored by Sen. Michael Gianaris, D-Astoria and deputy majority leader in the Senate, with several Democratic Senators co-sponsoring. It would amend amends Section 140.20 of the state Criminal Procedure Law to add a new subdivision which defines an “unnecessary delay” and amends Section 7008 of the Criminal Procedure Law that presumes that any pre-arraignment detention exceeding 24-hours is unnecessary and unlawful, unless clear and convincing evidence is provided to demonstrate that a delay was necessary for each an individual petitioner named in the writ. The legislation also mandates that cities with a population of one million people or more create a detained persons registry.

The legislation was part of the Senate’s non-controversial calendar, despite the Republican opposition.

Gianaris said in his legislative justification that he sponsored the legislation in response to the June 2020 protests in New York City sparked by the murder of George Floyd in which he said hundreds of people in New York City were detained for more than 24 hours without being brought before a judge. Gianaris said when public defenders petitioned for their releases, New York City Criminal Court Judge Burke ruled she State was permitted to hold detainees for more than 24 hours due to “a civil unrest crisis within the overarching COVID-19 crisis.”

“As a result, people accused of committing crimes were forced into cramped quarters indefinitely, posing an unnecessary risk to their health,” Gianaris wrote. “The protections in this bill would prevent New Yorkers from experiencing unlawfully lengthy detention in the future, unless acceptable individualized reasons for the delay are provided.”