{"id":459400,"date":"2022-06-08T04:38:11","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T01:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/locking-up-some-nyc-criminals-actually-can-save-them\/"},"modified":"2022-06-08T04:38:11","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T01:38:11","slug":"locking-up-some-nyc-criminals-actually-can-save-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/locking-up-some-nyc-criminals-actually-can-save-them\/","title":{"rendered":"#Locking up some NYC criminals actually can save them"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3e7376a5901\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3e7376a5901\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/locking-up-some-nyc-criminals-actually-can-save-them\/#%E2%80%9CLocking_up_some_NYC_criminals_actually_can_save_them%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Locking up some NYC criminals actually can save them&#8221;<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/locking-up-some-nyc-criminals-actually-can-save-them\/#Look_at_the_90s\" >Look at the \u201990s<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CLocking_up_some_NYC_criminals_actually_can_save_them%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Locking up some NYC criminals actually can save them&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--columnist inline-module--author\">\n<div class=\"inline-module--author__img\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"76\" height=\"69\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/08\/nicole-gelinas.png?w=76&amp;h=69&amp;crop=1\" class=\"attachment-nyp_columnist size-nyp_columnist\" alt=\"Nicole Gelinas\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/08\/nicole-gelinas.png 76w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/08\/nicole-gelinas.png?w=38 38w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 76px) 100vw, 76px\"\/>        <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>For all the patronizing attitude toward New York\u2019s low-level criminals on the part of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his supporters \u2014 that thieves and burglars bear no responsibility for their own behavior because they \u201cneed help\u201d \u2014 not all criminals are mentally ill or irrational in the choices they make.<\/p>\n<p>Exhibit A is Isaac Rodriguez, The Post\u2019s \u201cMan of Steal.\u201d Like most of us, Rodriguez, 23, is a mostly rational person: When the reward or punishment for his behavior changes, he\u2019ll change his behavior accordingly.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Last year, police arrested Rodriguez 46 times for shoplifting, including 37 times at a Jackson Heights Walgreens. Was Rodriguez newly destitute because he lost his job in the pandemic and desperate for bread?<\/p>\n<p>Nope: As he forthrightly notes, shoplifting was his job. He stole high-value goods to resell, to feed his drug habit.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Now, he\u2019s finally at Rikers, serving a sentence until the end of the year for shoplifting at a different drugstore that had taken out a restraining order against him. And Rodriguez is OK with that. He told The Post that \u201cI would\u2019ve died sooner or later\u201d if he \u201cwas still out there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/man-of-steal-289.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Rikers Island\" class=\"wp-image-22571567\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/man-of-steal-289.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/man-of-steal-289.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/man-of-steal-289.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Isaac Rodriguez is serving his sentence at Rikers Island.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AP\/Seth Wenig<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A reasonable prediction, considering that New York City suffered 1,233 overdoses during the first two quarters of last year (the latest data available), up 80% from pre-pandemic levels and the highest number on record.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignright\">\n    <\/aside>\n<p>Now, Rodriguez wants to get his GED and progress from there. Good for him, and good luck to him \u2014 and let\u2019s hope the city does give him the help he needs to achieve this goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But how did Rodriguez change his attitude? The carrot may work for some people \u2014 but many of us also need the stick. Rodriguez stole, over and over again, because he perceived \u2014 correctly \u2014 that there was no punishment for such behavior.<\/p>\n<p>Now that he does face such a punishment, he wants to change that behavior so that he doesn\u2019t face such punishment again. With the cycle he got himself into now broken \u2014 doing the im<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>te \u201cwork\u201d of stealing for the immediate \u201creward\u201d of getting high \u2014 he wants to think longer term.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>What broke the cycle? Not an \u201calternative to incarceration.\u201d Incarceration.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Look_at_the_90s\"><\/span>Look at the \u201990s<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/man-of-steal-287.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22571827\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/man-of-steal-287.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/man-of-steal-287.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/man-of-steal-287.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Rodriguez was arrested 37 times last year at a Jackson Heights Walgreens.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">J.C. Rice<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Indeed, what many people miss about the early-1990s \u201ctough on crime\u201d era in New York City is that it wasn\u2019t an era of mass incarceration. Between 1990 and 2019, the population held at Rikers Island fell from 22,000 on an average day to 7,000. Though the declines started later, the trend is similar at the state-prison level.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This wasn\u2019t because New York had gone soft on crime. It was because people were committing less crime, from shoplifting to car theft to murder.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Why would they do that? It wasn\u2019t because we started making better people or that the drug trade hasn\u2019t long offered an easy temptation above an entry-level minimum-wage job. It was because people knew that pursuing a career of crime wasn\u2019t a rational decision: They would get in trouble.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Incarceration skyrocketed, by contrast, in the \u201970s and \u201980s. People could get away with lots of low-level crime \u2014 until they did something really bad and went to jail and then prison for a long time. This trend is reviving itself, as both crime and the number of people in jail rise again.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/man-of-steal-290.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg\" class=\"wp-image-22571568\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/man-of-steal-290.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/man-of-steal-290.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/man-of-steal-290.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has received a lot of backlash for his soft-on-crime <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>roach. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Reuters\/Eduardo Munoz<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Based on what Rodriguez says, it\u2019s a good thing he stole stuff in Queens rather than in Manhattan. As Manhattan DA Bragg has put it, people who commit crime to feed addictions should be afforded \u201crepeated opportunities\u201d to avoid jail because \u201crelapses are part of the road to recovery.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So is dying. These second \u2014 and third, fourth and 46th \u2014 chances run out on the street, as the OD rate shows. As Rodriguez told The Post, \u201cThis is a blessing in disguise.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute\u2019s City \u00adJournal.\u00a0<\/em>\n                        <\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/06\/07\/locking-up-some-nyc-criminals-actually-can-save-them\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Locking up some NYC criminals actually can save them&#8221; For all the patronizing attitude toward New York\u2019s low-level criminals on the part of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his supporters \u2014 that thieves and burglars bear no responsibility for their own behavior because they \u201cneed help\u201d \u2014 not all criminals are mentally ill or&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":459401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/newspress-collage-22571247-1654651575472.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&1654637255&w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[130030,123566,70231,4998,130084,4953,75325],"class_list":["post-459400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-6-7-22","tag-alvin-bragg","tag-arrests","tag-crime","tag-imprisonment","tag-new-york-city","tag-rikers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}