Another critical factor in the dramatic surge of homicides in the second half of 2020 was that dangerous criminals were released early from jails and prisons under the pretense of fighting Covid-19.
The Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics has released new data on this.
A total of 208,500 inmates in local jails were released early between March and June 2020 as a “Covid-19 precaution.”
From midyear 2019 to midyear 2020, local jails went from 81% capacity to 60% capacity. The number of people held for misdemeanors declined 45%, and the number held for felonies declined 18%.
The number of inmates in local jails declined by 185,400 from midyear 2019 to midyear 2020.
This does not count the multitudes of imamates in state and federal prisons that were released early under the pretense of fighting “Covid-19.”
Around 24,000 federal inmates were released from prison and given “house arrest.”
The state of New Jersey began releasing people from state prisons eight months early in November of 2020. Maryland began releasing inmates four months early.
North Carolina began releasing thousands of prison inmates early in February of 2021 after the NAACP filed a lawsuit claiming the prisons were a Covid-19 danger.
The list goes on and on. The total number of people released early from jails and prisons probably exceeds 300k.
