The push to give criminals as little jail time as possible is often justified as a rehabilitative effort. But some criminals are only emboldened by the lack of consequences for their crimes. Sometimes, leniency only makes them more dangerous and civilians less safe.
According to New York City Police Department data obtained by the New York Post, roughly 1 in 5 criminals arrested for burglary or theft in New York City is rearrested on felony charges within 60 days of release. That 21.6% is up from 8.1% in 2017. The rate of burglary suspects rearrested within 60 days has risen from 7.7% in 2017 to 23.7%, and for those charged with grand larceny, the rate jumped from 6.5% to 19.7%.
The effects of New York’s bail “reform,” which was designed to promote “equity,” have been clear for some time now. Frank Abrokwa, a career criminal arrested 20 times since 1999, was let out on the street immediately after smashing a bag of feces into a woman’s face unprovoked. He was arrested shortly after that for a hate crime. Before that, he had also been released after punching a man multiple times in the head on two separate occasions.
The man who attacked Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) as he campaigned for governor was also released immediately without bail, even though he threatened Zeldin and then attempted to stab him in the neck.
In contrast, when bodega worker Jose Alba protected himself from the man who assaulted him, he was thrown into Rikers, with prosecutors demanding $500,000 bail. The man who assaulted him? A career criminal half his age who was on parole after assaulting a police officer.
When you promise criminals that you want them to serve as little time behind bars as possible, many simply realize there are no consequences and graduate to bigger, more dangerous crimes. There is no blanket policy that can reform or rehabilitate every criminal. When that policy is soft and removes discretion from the system, it makes life more dangerous for law-abiding citizens, which is what New York has done.
