Ellenberg, far-left groups float discredited decarceration tropes in county jail debate

"Decarceration" is a social justice movement that aims to greatly decrease the number of people jailed for all types of criminal offenses. Progressive advocacy groups and Supervisor Susan Ellenberg are pressing the county for a "Care not Cages" strategy that would redirect monies for jail maintenance and improvement onto abolitionist and reformist non-custodial programs. Rafael Manual of the Manhattan Institute suggests these strategies lead to disastrous results, including greater crime and recidivism.

Advocates of decarceration want to reduce the jail population by eliminating cash bail and diverting people away from incarceration. But unlike jail or prison, these programs do not incapacitate dangerous offenders. According to BJS, 37% of violent felons in large urban counties between 1990 to 2002 “had an active criminal justice status at the time of their offense.” [17] In other words, more than a third of those ultimately convicted were already on probation, parole, or out pending the disposition of a prior case when they offended. Of the 118 murder suspects identified by police in Baltimore in 2017, nearly 36% were on parole or probation at the time of the offense.[18]

Diversion or release might seem like an attractive option for the 18% of inmates imprisoned for drug offenses, but it’s important to remember that they are often dangerous criminals. Of those 118 murder suspects in Baltimore, seven in 10 had a prior drug arrest. Among the 400,000 released state prisoners followed by BJS, more than 75% of those who were initially incarcerated for drug offenses were subsequently arrested for a non-drug crime; 34% were later arrested for a violent crime.[19]

Much of America’s serious violent crime is perpetrated by repeat offenders who, in many cases, could have been (but were not) behind bars at the time of their offense. Large-scale decarceration promises to make the problem worse.

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