Accessing Progressive Criminal-Justice Policies

 

Introduction:

Accessing Progressive Criminal Justice Policies-

Gun Buybacks: 

Politicians in big cities believe that gun-buyback programs will reduce the violent crime that is spiking in America’s urban centers. But comprehensive research shows no evidence that such programs work. Philadelphia just completed a three-year gun-buyback program that yielded over 1,000 firearms. Not a single recovered firearm was linked to violent crime and, during the course of the program, Philadelphia set new all-time records for homicides. 

“Violence Interrupters”: 

Violence interrupters are former gang members and convicts who mediate disputes on the streets.  Cities led by “reform” prosecutors, such as Baltimore, Indianapolis, and Philadelphia have staked a lot on this idea. The results have not been encouraging. Multiple violence interrupters have been murdered in Baltimore. In Indianapolis, the former convict in charge of training violence interrupters was arrested for threatening a woman and had to be fired. In Philadelphia, a violence interrupter shot three people in a bar while he was working his anti-violence job. 

Decarceration:

The Prison Policy Initiative, with the support of legal academics, have railed against “mass incarceration” in the United States for decades, asserting that the United States could free thousands of prisoners, even violent criminals, without affecting public safety. For their argument to make any sense, they have to push for the release of violent criminals because—as even leading decarceration advocate John Pfaff concedes—the vast majority of criminals are incarcerated for violent crimes. 

In our urban areas, these groups have gotten what they wanted.  So how did it work out? The United States saw its biggest single-year rise in homicide in 2020, and the murder rates continued to rise in 2021. Homicides in many cities reached levels unseen since the 1990s, when incarceration rates were as low as they are now. The incarceration-versus-violent-crime relationship is statistically complex, but the wholesale release of violent criminals serves as one more contributor to increasing murders in American cities.

No Cash Bail: 

Fair and Just Prosecution, a think tank for radical prosecutors, has long championed a “no cash bail” policy, claiming that detaining people pretrial is simply a way of locking up the poor. In 2020, New York passed legislation substantially reducing the state’s ability to keep even violent criminals detained after they were arrested. The resulting spike in violent crimes by defendants released back to the streets led even Democratic New York governor Kathy Hochul to roll back this misguided reform in 2022.  In all the reforms have been rolled back at least three times now and crime is still a major issue in the state of New York.  Taking discretion away from judges and tieing their hands so they cannot address career criminals, organized crime and gangs turned out to be a bad idea.

De-Prosecution:

In our urban areas, prosecutors’ decision effectively to nullify criminal laws passed by state legislatures has had a disastrous effect on violent crime. A recent study using a synthetic control algorithm attributes an extra 74 homicides per year to the de-prosecution policy in Philadelphia, where prosecutions have dropped by a staggering 70 percent for both felonies and misdemeanors. The same methodology estimated an additional 70 homicides per year in Baltimore and 169 more homicides per year in Chicago, two other cities with de-prosecuting prosecutors. Electing prosecutors not to enforce the law was as crazy as it sounded.

Defund the Police: 

A sophisticated analysis by professors Eric Piza and Nathan Connealy determined that the lack of police led not only to an increase in violent crime in a designated police-free zone—an unsurprising result—but also to a spillover effect of crime in surrounding areas of Seattle. On a broader level, highly respected researchers Aaron Chalfin and Justin McCrary did a quantitative analysis demonstrating that, if anything, American cities are under-policed, and that adding more police would result in both net savings and reduced violent crime, especially murder. In raw statistical terms, adding ten police officers to a department prevents one homicide per year in that jurisdiction.

Conclusion:

What does work, then? The answers to that question have been demonstrated clearly and exhaustively: re-empower the police to protect law-abiding citizens. Arrest violent offenders, prosecute them vigorously, and incapacitate them with stiff sentences. And elect prosecutors who uphold and enforce the law, and who prioritize protecting law-abiding citizens, not violent criminals.

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