OPINION | This article contains the author's opinion.
An investigative report from Fox News discovered that Meg Reiss, who is Alvin Bragg’s chief prosecutor, once bragged about letting violent criminals and felons off the hook, including a murderer.
The Democrat-run city is using “a restorative justice approach” to help violent criminals avoid incarceration and re-enter the American public.
In 2021, Reiss said, “We know incarceration doesn’t really solve any problems.” She argued that criminals are not “bad dudes” and said juries should not give “benefit of the doubt” to police officers who face misconduct allegations.
Reiss revealed that the Manhattan district attorney “helped a murderer get out of jail time for a homicide victim who had very few relatives,” Fox News reported.
Celebrating New York’s efforts, she called it “extraordinary” that a man facing a murder charge was able to leave without any prison time. The victim allegedly only had one family as a relative, whom he did not know.
“It was an incident between two people that knew each other very well. And it was sort of… a fight that ended up with one person dying and the person who was charged had substance misuse issues and other things. And going through the outcome in the case, it just seemed appropriate for restorative practice rather than a carceral sentence.”
In contrast, when it comes to political opponents, the Democrat-run DA is accused of wrongfully and unjustly bumping up charges.
In President Donald Trump’s case, he is accused of allegedly falsifying business records. This charge is usually a misdemeanor in the state of New York, but the Democrat-run District Attorney Alvin Bragg bumped the charges to a Class E felony.
The charges were increased against Trump because Bragg claims Trump intended to conceal another underlying crime. However, no other crime has been charged.
Trump faces 34 felony counts, which carry a maximum of 4 years each and amount to a possible 136 years in prison.
Many violent criminals, Reiss said, are given referrals away from incarceration.
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“So we’re really trying to shift to restorative outcomes being the really default to the work that we do,” Reiss said. “So there’s some things where that already happens… for people that are charged with causing harm, actual violence… where they actually cause actual harm to another person.”
To divert violent criminals facing felonies in adult courts, generally around the ages of 18-26, Reiss said she “screens” the cases with an organization called Common Justice.
“That’s a default in our office,” she said.
“In New York City, we operate the… alternative-to-incarceration and victim-service program… that focuses on violent felonies in the adult courts,” the organization said.