Hordes of money were spent throughout the United States in 2020 forward to elect local district attorneys who campaigned on a commitment of criminal justice reform, and the results have been devastating.
According to findings published by the Department of Criminology at Penn State University, overall violent crime has risen sharply after a decade of decline despite the pandemic.
Since the May 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of police, the movement to defund the police and abandon prosecutions for petty crime has gained momentum. The result has been fewer officers on the streets and major retailers shuttering their businesses in places like Portland, Ore. and even New York City due to rampant theft.
While flash mob robberies have not become an epidemic in Augusta, shootings and other violent crimes have become more and more routine.
While Augusta District Attorney Jared WIlliams has not been anywhere near the laissez faire prosecutor as are some of his colleagues throughout the nation, he has had to learn some hard lessons in his short tenure.
The failure of the DA’s Office to prosecute Antoine Rodrigues Redfield on murder and gun possession charges for a December 2019 parking lot brawl that left two dead put the gang member back on the streets to go and allegedly shoot 8 year old Arbrie Anthony in a drive-by shooting.
This criminal should have never been let out of jail.
According to Williams’ rationale, while Redfield admitted to firing the illegally carried weapon in the 2019 incident, it was unclear who fired the fatal bullet, and all charges were dropped, even the felony gun charge.
While Williams has introduced new programs to help offenders who want to go straight expunge their records, and the court system now has special courts in place that are geared to help people get off of the drugs that cause them to commit crime, the more “equitable” system does not recognise the fact that some people cannot be saved and must be incarcerated for the safety of the general public.
In 1966, Charles Manson pleaded with authorities not to release him. He told them that most of his life had been spent in prison or reformatories and if released, he would return to a life of crime, which he did in a gruesome fashion.
While the Augusta government has not moved to defund the sheriff’s office per se, the sheriff has repeatedly asked for funding to be placed on SPLOST to build new jail pods and refurbish outdated equipment. Sheriff Richard Roundtree’s requests have fallen on deaf ears and instead, Augusta received a new splash park that was vandalized shortly after it opened.
Meanwhile, Columbia County fully funds its sheriff’s office, even springing for a state-of-the-art camera tracking system that can follow suspects digitally in real time. Columbia County also has a district attorney’s office that is no-nonsense.
Criminals know that if they attempt a crime in Columbia County, they will be swallowed up in a sea of blue lights and dealt with harshly by the courts.
Yet, even Columbia County’s success of capturing and incarcerating criminals means very little if criminals only serves a fraction of the prison time that they were sentenced.
Parole boards have turned to viewing incarcerated individuals as victims, and simple good behavior or a religious conversion is enough to drastically cut the sentence.
In the Federal Prison System, parole does not exist, but under the current administration, there have been far fewer prosecutions here locally. Under the guidance of the former U.S. Attorney Bobby Christine, press releases from the Southern District Court came in almost daily volleys giving details of new arrests.
Since Christine’s term ended with the Trump Administration, those press releases have slowed to a trickle.
We all need to come to the rational understanding that true criminal justice reform is catching and incarcerating criminals and forcing them to serve out their sentence in prison cells, not on a basketball court or gym.
True criminal justice does not reward criminal behavior but rather ensures the criminal is kept far away from potential victims.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Editorial Page Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
