Gascón Plans to Release Thousands of Criminals

Newly elected Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón told ABC News Monday that he estimates that his directive forbidding sentence enhancements for habitual felons will impact at least 20,000 cases.  Hans Bader writes in Liberty Unyielding that Gascón’s directive would prevent prosecutors in LA County from seeking the “increased penalties for repeat offenders who commit willful homicide, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault with a firearm,” approved when California voters adopted Proposition 8.

Bader notes that Gascón is also requiring deputies in his office to seek the early release of criminals who received sentencing enhancements for their prior crimes.  He also cited a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research showing that increasing the sentences of repeat offenders reduced crime by incapacitating habitual criminals and deterred would-be offenders from committing committing new crimes.  The impact of this policy on crime in California was profound, reducing eligible crimes by between 20% and 40% in just three years.  “Gascón’s directives will release many dangerous, hardened criminals, enabling them to prey upon innocent people,” writes Bader.