The New Era - All about Sweet Home since 1929

By Rich Lowry

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul delivered one of the most memorable lines of the midterm debates when she said she didn’t know why her Republican oppo-nent, Lee Zeldin, cared so much about locking up criminals.

Hochul’s highhandedness encapsulated an attitude toward crime and punishment that has been shaped by the decarceration movement.

Progressives have accepted a wholesale critique of the criminal justice system that is deeply flawed, not to say a complete fantasy. Its premises are false, and its effects are destructive. At the same time, it has made – for the second natio...