For years, progressives have whined about prosecuting crime, what they dub “mass incarceration,” as a woe to society. They complained it was racist, perpetuated broken families, and did little for either rehabilitation or deterrence. So an experiment was born. 

Billionaire George Soros promoted candidates for district attorney (the main prosecutor in a city) who would fail to prosecute entire categories of crime. Onlookers, including the prosecutors they unseated, argued that this experiment would lead to an increase in crime and thus a greater woe to society, resulting in more crime and misery in poor communities, more broken families, and zero deterrence.