In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in crime across the country, especially violent crimes such as murder. Data show that the prison population also declined that year as the country dealt with the coronavirus lockdown that upended society, the protests and riots that erupted in the summer of 2020, and demoralized police.
“Historical data point to consistent prosecution policies for low- and high-level crimes, and if it can undo the incarceration options that have been removed, the long-term It clearly shows that we can expect a ‘peace dividend’.” Police and Public Safety Officer Hannah Myers told Fox News Digital. “If our system can recapture and neutralize a concentrated but relatively small group of career offenders, if we can deter other crimes through the presence of consistent arrests and prosecutions, We can hope to reduce crime and minimize incarceration again.”
Data shows prison populations have declined as federal and state prisons released inmates in 2020 as the coronavirus raged.
According to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), 2020 will see the number of people in prisons reach “the highest in a year since the United States began tracking the prisoner population through the National Prisoner Statistics Program in 1926.” Decrease” was recorded. The data showed a 15% decrease across federal and state prisons in 2020 compared to 2019.
FBI 2021 National Crime Data Is Incomplete, Missing Data From Nearly 40% Of Police Forces Nationwide
Meyers told Fox News Digital to take the 15% decline number “with a grain of salt,” saying that federal data on criminal justice has been spotty since the pandemic, and that BJS data has been taken from state departments of corrections. said it relied on voluntary reports from federal agencies. of prison.
“But having said that, certainly COVID has led to a significant decline in incarceration, both through decisions by prosecutors and judges,” Myers said.
Myers noted that inmates held in state and federal prisons are felonies and repeat offenders with high recidivism rates.
“So releasing some of this group from prison because of COVID will definitely result in them committing more crimes,” she said.
Governors across the country have announced the early release of prisoners across the country in 2020 as the pandemic rages on. Authorities were concerned that the lack of social distancing in prison could exacerbate her COVID spread and endanger inmates and prison staff.
“Transporting from state prisons to mitigate the impact of the spread of COVID-19 and to protect public health, welfare and safety, especially the safety of vulnerable workers or those incarcerated in Maryland prisons. It is necessary and reasonable to implement protocols and procedures for, for example, an order from Maryland Governor Larry Hogan read that year.
As in other states, inmates convicted of sexual assault or other violent crimes in Maryland were not eligible for early release.
Huge increase in blacks killed was a result of police defense campaign: experts
Fox News Digital spoke with Jillian Snyder, former NYPD officer and current John Jay Adjunct Instructor. Snyder said in 2020 that many of the incarcerated individuals released due to COVID-19 are older and outside the age group of individuals who typically commit most crimes.
“Across crime statistics, it is the 18- to 25-year-olds who are most likely to commit violent crimes. It is these people who are most responsible for the violent crimes we see. It’s been very consistent since criminology began to be studied in this field.And the population we had in prisons and prisons was actually much older than that.
“I really don’t think there is a strong correlation between releases for COVID-related purposes and the individuals who have since contributed to the current surge. , because they show that they actually reoffend — and significantly less than individuals released through the traditional criminal justice process,” she added.
Violent crime exploded nationwide in 2020, with murders up nearly 30%, according to FBI data. It marks the biggest increase in murders in a year since the FBI began tracking crime. The crime wave continues in 2021, with homicides rising another 4.3%, according to FBI data. But the 2021 data released this month is incomplete, missing data from nearly 40% of police departments nationwide, including full reports from New York City and Los Angeles.
Experts who previously spoke with Fox News Digital said the pandemic and its lockdowns that disrupted daily life, the 2020 protests and riots that followed the murder of George Floyd, may have contributed to the year’s surge in crime. I pointed out some variables where is high. The police, and the Ferguson effect — when police officers back down as crime soars.
Tom Cotton: Democrats ‘Don’t Treat Criminals as Criminals’
Michael Rempel, director of Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said in a telephone interview with Fox News Digital that at this time it is not possible to determine whether the declining prison population has added to the crime wave. said.
“I don’t think we know the exact answer,” Rempel said when asked whether BJS data showing a 15% decline in prison population contributed to crime that year. With so many disruptive events in 2020, it’s difficult to pinpoint causality, and no study ever produced has been done so vigorously.
He said stay-at-home orders in early 2020, along with the early release of some prisoners during the pandemic, prevented people from engaging in criminal activity, leading to lower arrest rates and more arrests. claimed that rates and incarceration rates had declined. .
Myers said multiple variables could lead to a decline in prison populations, including fewer people committing crimes, less prison space to accommodate inmates, and changes in prosecutorial policies such as bail reform. said there is.
Myers said the United States began to see changes in the way suspects were prosecuted in 2017, and that the policy “is going to be good.” [and] Compassionate if they didn’t increase crime.”
“But the data shows they increased crime. For example, even before the newly passed SAFE-T bill in Illinois, Chicago Chief Justice Timothy Evans was released on bail in 2017. enacted reform measures: within 15 months, the number of felony defendants released without bail, the prison population doubled, and the prison population fell from 7,443 to 6,000, and in recent years , we’ve seen so much falsification and concealment of data to prove (contrary to reality!) that these policies are not harming the public. It’s safe,” she told Fox News Digital. I am writing to the email of
Myers added that lawsuit dismissals are also on the rise.
“And importantly, there is a growing number of case dismissals in cities across the country, which means declining prison populations and rising crime. It is due to certain policies enacted by progressive prosecutors in the United States,” Myers said. “Or decide that prostitution, resisting arrest, trespassing, etc. will not be prosecuted, even if they are essentially decriminalized.”
The layoffs are exacerbated by “something like the NYS Discovery ‘Reform’ Act passed in 2019.”
“The sheer volume of material produced that prosecutors now have to collect and turn over to defense attorneys has in most cases exhausted the ADA’s legal allotment of time to bring cases and these lawsuits are automatically dismissed, so prosecutors triage cases.The dismissal of cases in NYC increased from 44% in 2019 to 69% in 2021 (NYS court data According to ) this is mainly the cause,” Meyers wrote.
Prison Policy, a Massachusetts-based think tank, reviewed 2020 prison data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and reported that this year’s decline in the incarcerated population was also due to a decline in prison admissions.
New York law abolishes “convict” in favor of “incarcerated individual”
The data showed that prison admissions across the country fell by 40% in 2020 compared to 2019, and prison admissions fell by 16%.
Snider told Fox News Digital that other factors likely contributed to the decline in prison populations. That’s the 2020 court backlog.
“One of the things that could be a contributor, and never the only contributor, was that we saw such a backlog in the processing system, so it wasn’t necessarily individuals released with COVID, but people who were arrested and prosecuted. “Because we have found that the courts have been closed for a long time, the trial process has been significantly delayed,” she said.
Crime Analyst Group Finds 2020 U.S. Murder Rate Increase Has “No Modern Precedent”
Snyder, who is also the policy director of R Street’s criminal justice and civil liberties team, said data on such suspects and whether they were subsequently convicted are “lacking.”
Snyder said the withdrawal of the policing campaign “had people question the legitimacy of the police” and argued that cities should devote more resources to active policing to curb crime. did.
She spent 10 years in the NYPD’s plainclothes unit, discussing how some units can devote themselves to knowing their communities, such as units that don’t drive marked police cars and don’t respond to 911 calls. I thought.
“They were basically doing research on who in this community was most likely to commit this act of violence, who was on parole or probation, or who was on parole or probation. …they were gathering information at the scene,” she said to the aggressive police. “And they were looking for alpha male targets most likely to be involved in violent crime.”
Myers noted that more people “absolutely” need to be jailed to curb crime, at least for now.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“Crime always tends to be concentrated among very few repeat offenders (and in certain places). Continuing crime — which creates an even more criminal atmosphere — is without consequence encouraging others to be offended as well,” she said.