Liberals who do not want to jail anyone other than armed robbers, rapists, child molesters and murderers, and conservatives who do not want to spend the money needed to keep criminals locked up, have conned the public into accepting or demanding harmful criminal justice reforms.
Some of the reforms include bail reform and the reduction of some felonies to misdemeanors. Others include the early release from prison of ‘nonviolent’ offenders. These reforms are an invitation for criminals to commit more crimes, and especially for thieves and burglars to commit more thefts. In other words, the criminal justice reformers, be they liberals or conservatives, are putting people and their property at risk.
There do need to be some reforms in the setting of bail because the bail system keeps poor offenders in jai while those who can afford to make bail are released. It makes no sense for someone to sit in jail for months while waiting for a trial that upon conviction carries no prison time. But the reformers want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. California has enacted a landmark ban on cash bail in criminal cases. A new ballot measure for 2020 seeks to overturn the cash bail ban.
And in New York beginning next year, new laws will prohibit judges from imposing cash bail on defendants accused of misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies. Instead they must be released on their own recognizance and instructed to return to court. Many of the released felons will be preying on the public again and so will many of the thieves charged with misdemeanor theft.
Texas liberals have also been clamoring for legislation that will ban cash bail. The are facing strong opposition from the powerful bail bond industry. But last month, U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal approved an agreement by Harris County to equalize the pretrial treatment of the rich and poor. The agreement mandates the prompt release without bail of most misdemeanants held in jail in Houston. Prosecutors and the police objected to the agreement amid concerns that it will endanger public safety.
Liberals and minority activists have long bellowed about the disproportionate number of blacks and Latinos in prison – while blacks make up only 13 percent of this country’s population, they make up 40 percent of the prison population. The activists would have the public think that the only reason blacks and Latinos are in prison is because they are black or Latino. Liberals deliberately hide the fact that the disproportionate imprisonment is the result of a disproportionate amount of crime committed by minorities. Their bellowing, supported by fiscal conservatives, has led to the early release of felons from prison.
Liberals, again supported by conservatives, claim our prisons are full of ‘nonviolent’ inmates serving time for the possession of drugs. What they fail to tell the public is that most of the inmates doing time for possession were in fact dope dealers who copped a plea to possession in order to receive a lighter sentence. Dealing dope was their means of making a living and upon release, most of them will return to their chosen occupation.
Even President Trump has been taken in. Just before last Christmas. Congress gave many federal prison inmates a true gift – early release. The criminal justice reform bill gave federal judges more discretion in sentencing drug offenders, reduced the life sentence of “three strikes” drug offenders to 25 years, and allowed about 2,600 federal inmates doing time for crack cocaine offenses to petition for a reduced sentence.
Trump tweeted: “America is the greatest Country in the world and my job is to fight for ALL citizens, even those who have made mistakes. This will keep our communities safer, and provide hope and a second chance, to those who earn it. In addition to everything else, billions of dollars will be saved. I look forward to signing this into law!”
Make communities safer? No way! Save billions of dollars? Maybe, but the increase in crime may cost billions.
Made mistakes? The commission of crimes is not a mistake. A mistake is adding up 2 and 2, and coming up with 5. A mistake is forgetting one’s wedding anniversary. A crime is a crime, not a mistake! Crimes are committed intentionally, mistakes are unintentional. Citizens, as Trump refers to prison inmates, are behind bars for the crimes they intentionally committed, not for making mistakes.
The ‘First Step Act’, the criminal justice reform act which President Trump has touted, was designed largely to reduce the disproportionate number of black inmates in federal prisons. It should be noted that the feds do not get involved with small- time street corner dope dealers so that the drug offenders held in federal prisons must have sold or possessed a substantial quantity of drugs.
Not to be outdone by the feds, Oklahoma conducted the largest mass commutation in US history last month. 527 ‘nonviolent’ prison inmates had their sentences commuted. 462 of them were released. The other 65 had detainers and were to be released later. And in 2016, Oklahoma reduced some felonies to misdemeanors. For instance, the threshold for a property crime becoming a felony increased from $500 in property value to $1,000 in value.
If the bellwether state of California is an example, Oklahoma can expect a spike in property crimes. In 2016, California voters approved Proposition 47 which reduced some felonies to misdemeanors. And in order to charge a car burglar with burglary, the state must prove that the victim’s car was locked. That reform punishes the victim and rewards the burglar. Here is how the criminal justice reform of Prop 47 is working for California:
San Francisco is now ranked No. 1 in the US in property crime.
California leads with 30 percent of packages stolen nationwide by porch pirates.
Car break-ins are at crisis levels in California’s cities.
Texas has reduced car burglaries from a felony to a misdemeanor. Car burglars would have to be convicted twice of these ‘misdemeanors’ before they can be charged with a felony. A recently retired investigator with an auto theft task force told me that as a result, car break-ins have reached “epidemic” proportions. He said that because the car burglars often receive no jail time, many police departments no longer respond to car break-ins. They only record the date, time, name and address of the victim, filing it as a car burglary, and inform the victims to call their insurance company instead.
What reformists overlook is that crimes against property is the occupation of most criminals and keeping them out of jail or prison merely gives them the opportunity to stay on the job … the job of crime, that is. And what is really frightening is that today’s nonviolent criminal may turn out to be a deadly criminal tomorrow.
Years ago, I coined the phrase: “A ‘nonviolent’ criminal in jail is one less criminal on the street!” I should add that a thief or burglar in jail is one less criminal committing thefts.
While I am all for bail and criminal justice reform, I am not for the kind of reforms that invite criminals to commit more crimes and invite thieves and burglars to commit more thefts.
Good post Howie. It may be helpful for readers if you explain stacking. I would, but it’s been so long since I did any criminal cases I’d probably give incorrect info.
Greg, although I did not mention stacking, here is an explanation of how that works. If a defendant is convicted of two unrelated charges, he can be sentenced to serve both sentences concurrently. However, the court could order the sentences to run consecutively, also known as stacking, whereby the time serve on the second sentence doesn’t begin until the first sentence has been completed.
While overall agreeing with the cautionary warning of this post, I must urge readers to not reflexively fight against all aspects of “Criminal Justice Reform” efforts. The State of Texas has been a leader in the #CJReform area, gradually shifting from being just “tough” on crime to now also being “smart” on crime.
Let’s look at the Diversion programs to get people help for problems such as addictions and mental health rather than sending them to prison. These CJReform programs can make a big difference in people’s lives and in the cost to society. Look up the Harris County “STAR Drug Courts” (originally founded while HC had an all Republican judiciary) as a great example. There are also court diversion programs dedicated to Veterans, DUIs, Mental Health, and more. — However, these programs should only provide an opportunity for [minor] offenders to turn things around. If they reoffend or do not comply with all requirements of the programs, then they go into the standard penal system.
For those offenders housed in the criminal justice system, CJReform is also working to reduce recidivism. Inside the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), for eligible offenders there are educational and training programs spanning everything from basic life skills training to diploma/GED attainment to college credit/degree programs to vocational training & industry certifications. There is a direct inverse relationship between educational attainment and recidivism. Learning vocational skills (i.e., learning a trade skill) vastly increases one’s ability to get a job; having a job greatly improves the odds against that person returning to a life of crime. TDCJ has had offenders, who earned an industry certification needed by private sector employers, receive job offers even before the offender finished his term. — The investment in these CJReform programs is only a fraction of the taxpayer expense of rehousing a recidivist.
These are just a few examples of good/smart criminal justice reform. That said, we don’t want Texas to fall into a *California-style abandonment of public safety or personal accountability, but we do want to thoughtfully and reasonably continue to make smart progress. [*Note: CA had enormous problems with the operations of their prison system: over-crowding because they wouldn’t build more prison facilities, outrageous costs to operate their system, labor unions, Federal orders to comply with, etc.; thus, requiring their seemingly irresponsible “reform” actions.] … Even with the growing population in Texas, we have successfully reduced the state’s prison population, allowing for TDCJ to close several prison units and save Texas taxpayers tens of millions of dollars! Smart criminal justice reform can, and does, work. So let’s be careful to not throw out the CJReform baby out with the bath water.
This explains perfectly why theft of guns from locked cars is rampant in Houston/Harris county. Can someone point this obvious fact out to Art Acevedo who feels it’s his duty to blame law abiding citizens who are trying to protect themselves (because God knows his police department can’t) for these break-ins.
Isn’t the key reason for theft if guns from locked cars the prohibition posted by many businesses?
Bingo. Law abiding people are being left helpless by our laws. Who will have a gun in a bar? Only someone with bad intent. Law abiding folks will have their guns out in their cars, available to be stolen by people who don’t obey the law.
Unreasonably harsh, long mandatory sentences are the leading cause of the mass incarceration that negatively impacts every U.S. citizen with lowered funding for good things such as education, infrastructure, and public safety.
Drug incarceration and for-profit prison corporations are the second and third leading causes.
Those “unreasonably harsh, long mandatory sentences” keep the public safe. As for education, we’ve thrown a lot of money at improving learning in public schools, but many of our high school graduates can barely read, write and do simple math. Pray4Peace, you sound like one of the liberal reformers I’ve been talking about.
It’s a tough balance, but if habitual criminals are not incarcerated, crime increases…as do the costs of insuring and protecting our homes, our belongings, and ourselves.
I used to go through DA intake to file charges. Once the charge was approved by a pencil pushing, just out of law school Asst. DA, I would take the charge to a Judge. The Judge would issue a warrant of arrest upon you swearing to the affidavit. There was one Judge who would sometimes question the bond recommendation of the DA. He would ask me if the bond seemed low and I would always answer that the amount was recommended by the Asst. DA.
This Judge would look at the criminal record attached to the intake report and if it was lengthy, he would raise the bond by a considerable amount or write NO BOND.
He would say, “Recommendation denied.” Scratch through it and hand write and initial the new amount. Then he would say, “Good hunting, Detective.”
For some reason the reply button will not take a reply where it can be read. Could be my machine.
To: Kimery,
Please allow me to recommend a possible solution to weapon thefts from a vehicle. Burglary of Motor Vehicle suspects like to hit and run. They look for parking areas where people park for long periods of time. Fitness places, the cinema and higher end restaurants. Believe it or not most of the thefts are from unlocked vehicles. The thieves enter an area and then pull door handles until they find an unlocked vehicle. If valuables can be seen, then they will break a window. Thefts usually take less than 30 seconds.
If you keep a gun in your car, it should be placed in a lock box that is secured to the vehicle by a cable. These can be found locally and they are relatively inexpensive. The thief may find the box, but they usually will not take the time to defeat it.
Please remember carrying a firearm is a great responsibility.
San Francisco has for years had an odd take on property crime. Years ago they dumped the description of “auto burglary” out of their stats because it was scaring the tourists. It still happens obviously, they just call it something else. There is now almost no middle class in San Francisco. The rich are largely unaffected and much of the rest regard “thief” as a legitimate occupation. Sf also had a rash of gun thefts from cars, their response was to make it illegal to leave a gun in your car unless it was locked in a gun safe secured to the car. Also, after some of Criminal Justice Reform theft of a gun under $1,000 value was regarded as a citeable misdemeanor. Previously any theft of any firearm was considered a felony. (They finally went back to that.) The simple fact is that, in SF, the animals are loose and the clowns are running the circus. Feeling “woke” and more virtuous than the next guy is more important than solving social problems.