When does leniency provide license for more anti-social behavior?
Do soft-on-crime laws encourage criminal wrongdoing? Or does this kinder, gentler approach help society’s miscreants see the errors of their ways and embrace a more law-abiding approach to life.
It depends, of course, on the criminal and the crime.
But the example of Cook County resident Jordan Henry is illuminating.
Last year, he carjacked an Uber driver in Lakeview, located on the north side of Chicago. When he was taken into custody, Henry reportedly boasted to police that he would “be out by Sunday.”
Based on Henry’s geographic misunderstanding, he had good reason to say exactly that. He thought he’d be tried in Cook County, where State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is well-known for her lenient approach to prosecutions.
But Henry was prosecuted in Will County, where he was arrested after a car chase. State’s Attorney James Glasgow said that he, unlike Foxx, takes violent crime seriously.
That’s why Henry, who was convicted of armed robbery and aggravated vehicular hijacking, now is serving a 22-year sentence.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias is promoting a program to provide $21 million in grants to law enforcement agencies across the state in an effort to “tamp down on a three-year surge in armed carjackings.”
More than half the money will go to the Illinois State Police and the Chicago Police Department.
Carjacking is just one crime in Chicago that has skyrocketed in recent years. That’s why one commentator stated recently that the top four issues in the current mayoral race there are crime, crime and crime. Then, of course, there’s crime.
Responsibility for these misguided prosecution policies often is laid at the feet of so-called “pro-criminal” prosecutors who hold offices in cities that include Chicago, Los Angeles, St. Louis and Philadelphia.
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But they have many enablers. In Illinois, there are dozens of legislators working hard to ensure that more felons are released from prison and fewer felons are sent to prison.
Exhibit A for that proposition is the SAFE-T social/criminal justice act that was passed by the legislature, signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and is now before the Illinois Supreme Court, where its abolition of bond is receiving a constitutional review.
The SAFE-T Act, however, involves much more than the bond issue, and it will afford Illinoisans an opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t in terms of crime control.
Meanwhile, those laboring on inmates’ behalf keep introducing more proposals to get convicted felons out of prison.
Lawmakers recently introduced a bill allowing individuals serving life sentences to be released after serving 25 years.
Twenty-five years is a long time. But bear in mind that a criminal defendant doesn’t receive a life sentence without committing a horrendous crime, most certainly murder, but probably a murder with serious aggravating circumstances.
Think of the 2017 kidnapping and murder of the University of Illinois graduate student from China.
Her killer — Brendt Christensen — is serving life in a federal penitentiary. But if he was convicted under a state law, he could be eligible for parole far too soon under this law.
In highly publicized crimes like this one, it’s unlikely the inmate would get parole. The publicity would be too negative.
But other similar crimes do not receive the kind of publicity the Christensen case did. Manipulative inmates — oozing sincerely insincere regrets — could walk out the door far earlier than the sentencing judge intended.
This proposal may well pass. The governor and legislators have spoken loud and clear about their reformist intentions.
But they’re playing with a fire that could scorch the concept of public safety across the state.