Category: Recidivism

Michigan Law Protects Repeat Felons

by · Jul 23, 2025 1:24 pm

The arrest of a Flint Michigan City Councilman for beating his live-in girlfriend highlights how the state’s soft-on-crime policies protect its criminal population. As reported by Hudson Crozier of the Daily Caller News Foundation (published by Liberty Unyielding), Councilman Leon El-Alamin spent seven years in prison for gang-related drug and gun crimes before gaining early release and forming a non-profit dedicated to ending the “mass incarceration” of people of color and rehabilitating former criminals.  In the aftermath of the 2020 George Floyd riots, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer implemented the Clean Slate program, which allows convicts with up to three felony and an unlimited number of misdemeanor convictions to have their criminal records expunged.  After El-Alamin’s criminal record was erased under that program, he was able to receive a concealed-carry permit, which are not available to those with previous felony convictions.

Continue reading . . .

Canadian Study Finds Length of Incarceration Decreases Recidivism

by · Mar 4, 2025 1:54 pm

Simon Fraser University in British Columbia has this press release announcing this study in the Journal of Criminal Justice regarding the effect of sentence length on recividism. Overall, studies on this issue have mixed results and generally show little effect either way, as Elizabeth Berger and I describe in this article, which is cited in the new article.

Here is the abstract: Continue reading . . .

Just Deserts in Alabama

by · Jul 19, 2024 12:59 pm

“Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.” — Adam Smith

Keith Gavin was convicted of murder in Illinois in 1982. Although sentenced to 34 years in prison, he was paroled in only half that time. The next month after his release, he shot and killed William Clayton during a robbery in Centre, Alabama.

Gavin did not get off so easy the second time. The U.S. Supreme Court denied his stay request yesterday, and he was executed about 6:00 pm. Continue reading . . .

Released Robber Robs Again the Next Day

by · Jun 18, 2024 10:53 am

On May 7, convicted robber Eric Gray was released from San Quentin. The next day he robbed a bank in Orange County, California and held three employees prisoner. He presently faces charges in federal court. The Orange County Register has this article.

The federal complaint states that “Gray has a lengthy criminal history that includes, but is not limited to, grand theft auto, robbery, sexual battery, and narcotics-related offenses. Continue reading . . .

The Consequences of Early Release

by · May 28, 2024 9:58 am

Leniency to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent far too often. CWB Chicago reports yet another example. Zebedee Thomas has been charged in Cook County with rape and other crimes committed last August. A DNA match confirms identity. Thomas previously pleaded guilty to a sexual assault on a 7-year-old committed while a juvenile. In 2022, he was sentenced to four years for unlawful imprisonment in Kentucky.

Why was a repeating violent criminal who had been sentenced to four years in prison back on the street the very next year to commit yet another horrific crime? Continue reading . . .

Ban-the-Box Busted

by · May 14, 2024 9:45 am

Among released criminals, there is a substantial connection between employment and going straight. That is, those who find employment are less likely to commit new crimes. The “ban the box” movement seeks to forbid employers from asking about criminal convictions. A related effort is to expunge criminal convictions. The theory is that by removing this information from employers, more past offenders will find employment, and fewer will return to crime.

But does it work?

This study has recently been posted on the National Bureau of Economic Research site. “We find consistent evidence that removing an existing record does not improve labor market outcomes, on average.”

Add another example to the list of confirmations of H.L. Mencken’s famous observation: “There is always a well-known solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong.” Continue reading . . .

The Pillowcase Rapist and the Folly of Current Cal. Policies

by · Jun 28, 2023 3:01 pm

A post earlier today described the case of the “pillowcase rapist” and his arrest for a new violent crime at the age of 71, following release after only half his sentence. Further research has determined that this appalling result comes from an old, misguided law that has since been fixed, not the current misguided policy. Even so, the case illustrates the folly of the current policies. It is yet one more example of the maxim that those who cannot remember history are condemned to repeat it. Continue reading . . .