New York County

New York County follows New York law on arrests, release, and courts. These rules are the same in every county in the state; the full set covers prosecutors, defense, and jails too.

Who decides release first

A judge of a local criminal court decides release at arraignment; the police do not set bail. Outside the big cities that judge is often a town or village justice who need not be a lawyer. A local court can't set bail on a class A felony or for someone with two prior felony convictions; a superior court judge decides those.

N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law 530.20N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law 150.20

Time to see a judge

Police must bring an arrested person before a local criminal court without unnecessary delay. The statute sets no hour limit. The U.S. Supreme Court's 48-hour rule for a probable cause finding applies as the federal floor.

N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law 140.20

Money bail

Since 2020, a court must release people charged with most misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies on their own promise or on nonmoney conditions. Money bail is allowed only for listed qualifying offenses, such as violent felonies and some sex and weapons crimes.

N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law 530.20(1)

Courts

Felonies are tried in the Supreme Court in New York City and in the County Court elsewhere. Misdemeanors go to local criminal courts: the New York City Criminal Court, city courts, district courts, and town and village courts. Local courts also hold the first arraignment on felonies.

NY Courts, 8th Judicial District, Court structureNY Courts, New York City Criminal Court

Judges and magistrates

Voters elect Supreme Court justices to 14-year terms and County Court judges to 10-year terms. The mayor appoints New York City Criminal Court judges to 10-year terms, and voters elect town and village justices, who need not be lawyers.

NY Courts, 8th Judicial District, Court structureNYC Bar, Guide to Judicial Selection Methods in New YorkN.Y. Uniform Justice Court Act 105

Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. The district attorney's four-year elected term is from the state constitution, which we did not open; County Law 700 confirms each county has one.

Pretrial practice

Mapping Pretrial Injustice listed its risk tool in 2021 as a county-specific tool (not named in the list).

MediaJustice and Movement Alliance Project, Mapping Pretrial Injustice county map (data as of fall 2021)

From Mapping Pretrial Injustice, a map compiled by MediaJustice and the Movement Alliance Project, advocacy groups that campaign against pretrial risk assessment tools. Its data is from fall 2021; CrimeDB uses it only where no court, government, or research list covers the county.

• NY0300000County
• NY0307000Other state agency
• NY0307500Other
• NY330SS00State police
• State University of New York Police: OptometryUniversity or College

Agencies: FBI NIBRS master file 2025 batch headers; names from the FBI agency list, pulled 2026-09-29. An agency that serves several counties appears on each. Population served is the FBI's figure.