A radical attempt to reform criminal justice is underway across America.
Anti police politicians want to defund the police. Soros-backed public prosecutors often appear unwilling to prosecute serial wrong-doers. Anti prison progressives seem to regard prision as a problem, rather than as the solution.
Tragically the anti police, anti prison, anti prosecution agenda has a price – and it is a price paid disproportionately by African American communities across the country.
On Thursday, Rafael Mangual came to talk at an event hosted by the Mississippi Center for Public Policy about the consequences of misguided criminal justice reform.
You can watch what Rafael had to say here.
Here in Mississippi our state capital, Jackson, has one of the highest per capita homicide rates in the nation. Last year, our murder rate was close to twice that of Atlanta – and as we know from media coverage, the victims are overwhelmingly African American.
Rafael Mangual shared with us research that shows that when the police, public prosecutors and the courts do decide to get tough on violent offenders, crime rates fall – and the beneficiaries are overwhelmingly African American.
Over the past few years in America, many well-meaning folk have wanted to believe that there are better alternatives to prison. If only we did not lock up so many people, so the story goes, wrong doers might return to being useful members of society. Maybe if we did not incarcerate so many people we could rehabilitate them back in to the community?
Rafael has produced powerful evidence to prove that this is wishful thinking.
The primary purpose of prison is not to rehabilitate offenders – although that should not mean that we should to seek to. Nor are criminals sent to prison primarily to deter others from such behavior. The primary purpose of prison is to lock up bad people to prevent them doing bad things to good people.
The evidence shows overwhelmingly that when we fail to keep persistent offenders in prison, we often free them to commit more crimes.
There is nothing inevitable about our appallingly high crime rate. We need action that has proven effective elsewhere to cut crime here.
Nor is our high rate of crime consigned to Hinds county. We need to be prepared to act for the sake of our entire state.
If our state is to prosper, we need to address crime and public safety as a top priority – and we need leaders that recognise that crime is a Mississippi wide problem.
Rafael’s talk in front of a packed audience in Jackson was a wake-up call for our leaders.
The Mississippi Center for Public Policy will be in the forefront of this fight to get serious about violent crime – and we are convinced that with the right policy changes it is a fight our state can win.
