The Pandemic of De-Incarceration

Written by Daniel Horowitz

People are sitting in solitary confinement in the D.C. jail for a year for trespassing on public property on Jan. 6, yet in Chicago, nearly 90 murder suspects are out on bail.

Last Monday, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart revealed that in his county alone, 90 murder suspects, 40 people charged with attempted murder, and 852 people charged with aggravated gun possession are out free on bail indefinitely, waiting for their trials. What do people like this do while they are free? Commit the next crime. In 2021, 133 people were arrested for crimes committed while out on this electronic monitoring program.

Once again, it’s clear that we face a crisis not only from the war on cops, but from the war on incarceration. So many of the most heinous crimes are committed by career criminals out on pretrial bail. In New York City, a new law has abolished bail for most crimes. This has led to the creation of new programs of supervised release designed to have social workers monitor criminals and ensure they show up for trial. But what happens while they are out free?

According to The City, data compiled by the state Office of Court Administration and the state Division of Criminal Justice Services reveals that 41 percent of all criminals out on supervised release from Jan. 2020 through June 2021were re-arrested. Yet despite violating the terms of release, almost all of them are released again without having to post cash bail. The City found that more than half of those re-arrests occurred within four months of the defendants being freed, with 4,467 re-arrested within weeks of their release.

There is simply no deterrent left in America’s major cities. It doesn’t matter how many times they commit the crime. Darrell Johnson, 23, had more than a dozen arrests and was out pretrial for attacking a woman when he allegedly attacked two more women in broad daylight on Dec. 2. One woman was knocked unconscious and lost a tooth. Now he is out free again!

This week, the NYPD arrested Simon Martial and charged him with second-degree murder for allegedly shoving 40-year-old Michelle Alyssa Go to death from a subway platform. This happened in the heart of the Times Square subway in broad daylight. Go was killed instantly when a train hit her while she was on the tracks. Why are there so many brazen crimes like this being committed on subways? According to police, Martial had a criminal record dating back to 1998 and had an outstanding parole warrant.

Aside from the abolishing of bail, the Soros prosecutors are constantly downgrading serious violent crimes, so even if a criminal amasses a robust rap sheet, the severity of the charges is never serious enough to trigger cash bail or tougher sentencing. This is done by design. After promising to downgrade numerous felonies to misdemeanors, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg made good on that promise and reduced charges for a career criminal arrested for holding up a drug store clerk at knifepoint.

“F*** you, I’m taking everything,” William Rolon allegedly said to the female manager of a drug store on the Lower East Side as he filled up his bag without paying. Can you really blame him? He’s not wrong because he essentially can take anything without facing punishment.

Although blue states like New York are the most crime-ridden areas, red states are not immune to the growing crime wave. Harris County, Texas recorded over 600 murders in 2021, a 70 percent increase compared to 2019. A 2020 report from the Texan found that 57 victims have been murdered in Harris County over the past two years by defendants who had been released on multiple felony bonds and personal recognizance bonds. Texas badly needs to pass a more robust overhaul of its bail system than it did during last legislative session.

Even in states like Alabama, we have murderers getting let out on ineffective electronic monitoring. Dayvon Bray is now accused of killing his teenage girlfriend after having posted bail last August when he was arrested for murder. This November, voters in Alabama will vote on “Anita’s law,” which gives judges more discretion in denying bail for violent criminals. However, with so many liberal judges on the bench, there is a need to start mandating denial of bail in certain cases.

Then there is the coming torrent of federal prison releases. Pursuant to the jailbreak bill signed by President Donald Trump, known as the “First Step Act,” the DOJ submitted a new policy to the Federal Register that will grant inmates 10-15 days good time credit for participating in “evidenced based” anti-recidivism programs. In other words, we will have left-wing NGOs create critical race theory types of curriculum, and that will be used to truncate federal sentences. The federal prison population is already down nearly 30 percent since 2013. Not surprisingly, the BOP announced that all the people released due to COVID will be able to remain free even after the pandemic.

Unless we get a handle on catch-and-release, people charged with political crimes will be the only ones left in jail.

Daniel Horowitz is a senior editor of TheBlaze and host of the Conservative Review podcast. He writes on the most decisive battleground issues of our times, including the theft of American sovereignty through illegal immigration, the theft of American liberty through tyranny, and the theft of American law and order through criminal justice “reform.”