Walking the Progressive Walk
7th March 2022
Alvin Bragg, the new district attorney for Manhattan, promised to pursue a radical vision of criminal justice. In his campaign he vowed to adopt a “presumption of non-incarceration” for pretrial detention, except in cases of rape or murder. His presumption that people should not go to prison was also applied to his philosophy of sentencing the guilty, except for convictions for rape, murder, or public corruption. Who needs public defenders when you’ve got the prosecutor doing their job?
The impact of the new DA’s plans didn’t hit New Yorkers until he was actually sworn in and began to implement his promises. With crime continuing to soar, there was a mild degree of outrage about Bragg’s intentions, though he had always been quite clear about his plans; it’s just that no one was paying attention, or they assumed he wasn’t serious.