Locking Up Some Criminals Actually Can Save Them — despite What Soft-on-Crime Pols Say

For all the patronizing attitude toward New York’s low-level criminals on the part of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his supporters — that thieves and burglars bear no responsibility for their own behavior because they “need help” — not all criminals are mentally ill or irrational in the choices they make.

Exhibit A is Isaac Rodriguez, The Post’s “Man of Steal.” Like most of us, Rodriguez, 23, is a mostly rational person: When the reward or punishment for his behavior changes, he’ll change his behavior accordingly. 

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?

Continue reading the entire piece here at the New York Post

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Nicole Gelinas is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor at City Journal. Follow her on Twitter here.

This piece originally appeared in New York Post