A Must-Read: Tal Fortgang: Incarceration Works

Reall--just go read this.

   Crime--especially violent crime--is extremely concentrated among a small population of repeat-offending, mostly young, males, who commit something like 25 offenses for each police contact, and have 5-30 prior arrests before they are imprisoned.

   Taking these people off the streets sooner is an effective--the only effective--way to appreciably reduce violent crime.

   As with almost every other major article of leftist faith, the idea that incarceration doesn't work--a mantra recently intoned by several lefties, including Brandon Johnson--is politically correct Lysenkoist fantasy. (Also: the idea that prisons are full of nonviolent drug offenders is utter horseshit.)

   Unfortunately, the problem is even worse than Fortgang lets on here: criminality is largely genetic. One of the best (the best?) predictor of criminality is paternal criminality.

   And, to make matters just about as bad as they can be: violent criminality is extremely concentrated among blacks.

   Of course this all makes if basically impossible to speak truth about the problem without flipping the left's freakout switch. Speak all (or perhaps any) of these truths out loud, and you will be declared a racist--needless to say. This is one of the most effective methods by which the left polices thought and prevents important truths from even being spoken--even being raised as possibilities. The left is very good at what it does--including controlling the public conversation and keeping politically incorrect truths out of it. Their first line of defense is to prevent people from even hearing of certain truths. Their next line of defense is to declare politically incorrect truths to be racist. Then they move on to "the science is settled!"...against the hatefacts in question... The very last thing they want is to have to engage in rational debate on the merits of their positions...because they know they're very likely to lose. So why risk it?

   Anyway: absolutely read the Fortgang piece...sez me.