We're Underincarcerated, Part Ten Zillion

It would be a joke if it were funny.

One of the recurrent themes of “criminal justice reform” is that the country is suffering from “mass incarceration.” Indeed, the “reform” movement uses that phrase, and the MSM repeats it, as if it were holy writ.

In fact, it’s baloney. The population of the United States is about 336,000,000. There are roughly 2,000,000 people in prisons and county jails. In other words, 99.4% of the population is not incarcerated, while 0.6% is. The notion that 0.6% is “mass” anything is absurd. In addition, as the center-left Pew Foundation reports, the number of people incarcerated has been falling since at least 2009, to the point that, as its 2021 report headlines, “America’s incarceration rate falls to lowest level since 1995.”

But I digress. Statistics tell us one thing, and they’re valuable, but anecdotes open a window that statistics miss. A friend sent me this story today from CWBChicago, “Chicago man arrested twice in one day for breaking into cars — while on electronic monitoring for breaking into cars.”

Prosecutors say a Chicago man burglarized a work crew’s van while wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet for two pending burglary cases. And, incredibly, the arrest occurred about two hours after he left the police station on a recognizance bond after a concealed carry holder held him at gunpoint for allegedly breaking into yet another car.

Officers arrested Santillan, charged him with misdemeanor criminal trespass to a vehicle, and he walked out of the Austin (25th) District station at 4:37 p.m., according to CPD records.

About two hours later, Chicago police arrested Santillan again. This time it was in the 5000 block of West Belmont.

Prosecutor Victor Aberdeen said that two workers were detaining Santillan when officers arrived to investigate a vehicle break-in report. They told the police that they had caught Santillan inside their work van. Cops also allegedly found doorbell camera footage of Santillan taking work tools out of a nearby car.

The entire time, Santillan was wearing an ankle monitor for two pending burglary cases….

It’s funny in its way — unless you happen to own one of the cars Mr. Nicey is breaking into.

When we continuously release people who spend their whole day committing crime, the problem we have is not “mass incarceration.” The problem is a bizarre form of public masochism in which we accept crime as if we deserve it (a belief I strongly suspect the “criminal justice reform” people harbor, but that’s the subject for a future post). If for at least a time we put these characters behind bars where they can’t plague civil society, we’re Bad People.

Sure.

But wait, there’s more!

The next story I encountered was this one from the New York Post, titled, “Los Angeles DA George Gascon offering free shuttle service so staff can get to work safely.” It’s now at the point in Los Angeles that the staff of the District Attorney’s Office, no less, can no longer walk safely from their parking lot to the building where they work. I guess muggers are not living in fear of “violence interrupters” and other liberal frolics that were going to “keep us just as safe” after we told the police to go away.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office began a program this week to shuttle employees between their cars and workplaces in downtown Los Angeles amid a series of incidents in which some have been confronted by the public, officials said Thursday. 

On Monday, the DA’s office launched the Employee Secure Transport and Escort Program (E-STEP) in an effort to provide free secure transportation for employees assigned to the Civic Center area. 

“Security incidents involving aggressive confrontations initiated by members of the public have occurred to our employees assigned in the Civic Center area, while walking between their vehicles or transportation area and the office,” a news release announcing the program said. 

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The transportation service announcement comes as District Attorney George Gascon faces mounting criticism that he has failed to prosecute crime. 

“It is unprecedented in the 173-year history of the LA District Attorney’s Office that employees need to be escorted to and from their cars to protect them from random violent attacks,” John McKinney, a prosecutor with the DA’s office who is running to unseat Gascon in 2024, told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

“While I applaud George Gascon for taking measures to ensure the safety of DA staff, I blame his policies that have contributed to the need for such extraordinary measures,” he added. “My thoughts also go out to the millions of Los Angelenos who have to travel about the County of Los Angeles without the same protection.”

Well yes, there is that. While Mr. Gascon provides at least a measure of protection for the prosecutors on his staff, what about protection for the rest of LA’s residents who have no such special status? Under the progressive George Gascon, their transportation options are, ummmmm, less appealing:

The move comes as Los Angeles residents have fled public transportation as drug use and violence skyrocket.

Serious crimes, such as aggravated assault, murder and rape, on Los Angeles’ trains and buses increased by 24% last year, compared to 2021, while other less-serious crimes increased by 14%, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. 

“We don’t even see any business people anymore. We don’t see anybody going to Universal. It’s just people who have no other choice [than] to ride the system, homeless people and drug users,” one unidentified Metro train operator told the Los Angeles Times.

The problem is not “mass incarceration,” which doesn’t exist. The problem is the invited encroachment of Third World levels of crime and disorder, which does — in Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore, St. Louis and, unless we wake up and reverse course, in every corner of the country.