Boston’s chief prosecutor is using a long-dormant state statute to lock up career criminals in a strategy that saves the state money and is a secret weapon behind falling crime rates, says the Boston Herald. ”This work we’re doing is aimed at those who haven’t got the message,” said Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley. “Once you get them off the street, the whole community becomes a lot safer.” The 1998 statute allows certain suspects – even those nabbed for relatively minor gun offenses – to be prosecuted under the armed career criminal charge, which carries a hefty prison sentence. Boston crime reached record lows last year thanks in part to the campaign, authorities say.
Police Commissioner Edward Davis says “there’s a very small number of bad actors that are driving the bulk of the crime we see on the street. I agree with that,” Conley said. Prosecutions under the law had been done rarely for years because they require an extraordinary draw on resources. They are being brought now based on a calculation that one career criminal prosecution is more effective than spending years prosecuting a suspect for repeat offenses that carry short prison terms.
How can you charge someone who is convicted on a gun charge as an Armed Career Criminal when none of their prior convictions included any kind of gun charges? I think that this statute that they impose for sentencing as an ACC should be much stricter on what qualifies somebody as an ACC. Drug charges and Burglary charges where no weapons were involved and no individuals were physical harmed or threatened qualify a defendant to be charged as an Armed Career Criminal, that is wrong. What were they armed with??? Nothing, but it doesen’t seem to matter when they go for sentencing and get hit with fifteen to life instead of 1 – 3. And this saves money??? How is that so? It costs a lot more to house a criminal than it does to arrest and try them…especially when they’re being housed for a significant amount of years (which is exactly what the ACC charge results in), not to mention the cost of air transportation from one federal pen. to another. And then they let the perverted child rapists off with a slap on the wrist, probation or maybe a little jail time. Are you kidding me?! I would rather live amongst criminals than people who are raping children. It’s time things got straightened out.