Brad Watts
speaker
159 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard Nov 2024
Brad Watts’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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So he's saying re-arrest rates dropped as a result of eliminating bail from 55 to 44% for all arrests and from 27 to 24% for felony arrests, which to be honest, those numbers sound fairly modest, but an 11% difference, a 3% difference, I know that represents thousands and thousands of people whose lives are impacted. And I think we can all agree that reducing recidivism is a good goal.
But then I think, well, okay, that's for misdemeanor and nonviolent felony charges. Great. I'm not nearly as worried about those people. But this guy, the attempted murderer from the original letter, he kept getting arrested for domestic violence. That is a violent crime. It's a totally different category. So how can the law not take that into account?
Can we not let violent abusers out of jail if they can't put up bail and let the guy who was busted with... freaking shrooms on the subway? Can we let that guy go? That doesn't seem crazy to me. That sounds like responsible policy.
Well, right. And again, this is where I can appreciate both sides of the argument. On one hand, we lock up way too many people in this country. Our jails and prisons are overcrowded. They're horrible. It's hugely expensive. It ruins people's lives. The whole goal is for people to get better and stay out of prison. So yes, of course, I'm all for reducing recidivism.
But then you have a story like the one our friend shared, and it's like, okay, is reducing the percentage of re-arrests, especially if the drop in re-arrest is relatively modest, is that worth allowing our friend's mom to be murdered by a psycho arsonist abuser? I'm just not so sure about that.
And I can totally appreciate the counter-argument that we need to work at the level of statistics, we can't get every single story right, because yes, here we have a mother who was almost murdered by her abuser who was let out because of bail reform, but there are also countless stories about equally real people whose lives were ruined by committing a dumb crime and not having the money to post bail.
So I get that, and I'm not dismissing that.
Look, he might be right about that. The media can tell whatever story it wants to tell, and these stories are juicy. They're shocking. I can picture the New York Post and the local news playing up stories about how violent crimes in New York are up and how reckless liberal officials are to blame.
Exactly. But then I got to ask, how do we know which stories are and aren't associated with bail reform, really? I mean, our friend's story definitely happened because of bail reform, or at least bail reform enabled her abuser to keep targeting her mom. Because let's remember, her mom also kept choosing that guy on some level, which is part of what was so complicated about the story.
That's right. So that's fascinating, too. So that's another wrinkle here. According to her, certain media outlets don't want to hype up the connection between violent crime and bail reform. Is it because it's irresponsible to do so, or is it because it sort of contradicts a narrative that they would like to push that this thing needs to happen?
But again, at a minimum, we have to admit that at least one almost tragedy happened because judges were forced to let pieces of crap like this guy out of jail On the same day, I'll never forget, she said he was often out of jail faster than her mother was out of the hospital after he beat her up.
So however the media covers this story, it doesn't change the reality on the ground, which is why hearing people's stories directly like our friend's story is actually so important. All that to say, I really do appreciate this chance to consider the other side of the argument. As you can see, I'm not entirely swayed by it, especially after hearing a story like the one we've been talking about.
But I can also make room for the fact that there's a really tragic and complicated relationship among demographics, criminal behavior, arrest rates, money, and the idea that there are two different justice systems in this country, one for rich people, one for poor people. That kind of sucks. I mean, I think everyone knows that that's unjust.
So I feel for the guy who loses his job for stealing a car or whatever because he can't pay $1,000 to post bail, but also he stole someone's car. So like... I don't know. Maybe don't steal a car, bro, and then you won't have this problem. But I also know that those are not the only people who are being let out of jail because of bail reform.
Clearly, the system is allowing some actually very dangerous people to slip through the cracks. So my question is, and I invite anyone to answer this for themselves, I honestly don't know the answer. What's more important, reducing arrests and protecting low-level criminals or protecting victims of violent people? Because that's what this seems to come down to.
I want to believe you can do both by having responsible reform, but obviously that is easier said than done and you cannot account for every single case. Fascinating topic. You can reach us Friday at jordanharbinger.com. Keep your emails concise. Use descriptive subject lines. That makes our job a lot easier.
If reckless doctors compromised your friend's mental health, your partner might be hiding a dark past. Ooh, that one hits home. or your grandparents helped an immigrant with a violent past illegally enter the country, whatever's got you staying up at night lately, hit us up Friday at jordanharbinger.com. We're here to help, and we keep every email anonymous.
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Great one. Yeah. You know, I'm honored. I'm glad I'm not Doo Doo.
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