NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. — In an opinion article for The New York Times, Algis Baliunas said he regrets supporting harsh sentencing during the tough-on-crime era, arguing that many people prosecuted decades ago are now serving unnecessarily long prison terms and that reform is overdue.
In the article, Baliunas said he became a prosecutor in Chicago in the 1970s. He wrote that at the time, “Crime rates were high. Communities were under strain.” He said he and his colleagues viewed lengthy prison sentences as “common sense” and believed that people convicted of violent offenses would “remain dangerous for decades.”
Baliunas said those views felt justified because long sentences were seen as necessary to protect the public. He added that “the political and legal culture rewarded severity. Long sentences felt not only justified, but necessary.”
However, Baliunas said he was wrong. People changed behind bars over time and in unexpected ways and, especially as they age, “whatever risk these prisoners once posed has changed with time.” He noted that even today, “some of the people I prosecuted decades ago remain in prison.”
Reflecting on the beginning of his career as a prosecutor, Baliunas compared the prison system then and now. When he started, there were about 200,000 people in prison, but today that number has grown to more than 1 million. He also wrote that “the number of elderly people behind bars has also risen rapidly over the past several decades, a trend fueled by tough-on-crime sentencing practices that I helped perpetuate.”
He pointed to studies showing that as people age, they are less likely to commit crimes. “It is exceedingly rare for elderly prisoners who are released back into society to reoffend. And yet a generation of elderly men and women who were sentenced decades ago under old assumptions remain behind bars.”
Baliunas said he now sees that “sentences can be much harsher than what is needed to protect the public.” He called for a reassessment of the justice system, arguing that without one, the system risks losing its purpose. He wrote that prison is meant to hold people accountable and protect the public while working to “ensure that punishment remains fair and proportionate over time.”
In recent weeks, Baliunas said he has been reflecting on the case of Larry Hoover, a former Chicago gang leader. Hoover was convicted of murdering a young drug dealer, William Young, and sentenced “to up to 200 years in prison.” However, Baliunas noted that President Donald Trump commuted Hoover’s life sentence last year.
Baliunas did not prosecute Hoover’s murder case, but said he worked in the office that did. In 1978, he wrote, “I prosecuted Mr. Hoover in the aftermath of a prison riot before his charges were dismissed once it became clear that they were not supported by evidence.” Years later, Baliunas represented Hoover in parole proceedings and said he is now “advising Mr. Hoover’s attorney on his clemency petition.” Seeing the case from both sides, he said, had “given me perspective I did not have earlier in my career.”
He wrote that Hoover is no longer the same man who entered prison in his 20s and has now spent more of his life incarcerated than free. Baliunas also said Hoover “suffered from heart attacks” and had “reflected deeply about his past and has accepted responsibility for the harm that he has caused. He no longer poses a threat.”
Baliunas argued that clemency for Hoover is not softness, but a “recognition that justice evolves over time.” While acknowledging that serious crimes deserve severe consequences, he questioned whether “punishment imposed decades ago continues to serve the purposes it was meant to serve today.” He pointed to Europe as an example, where prison terms are often “measured in years or decades, not lifetimes.”
He argued that the criminal legal system must become more comfortable with the idea that, with time, “punishment has done enough.” He added, “Governors should address this by granting clemency to elderly prisoners who clearly no longer pose a threat. Prison officials, parole boards and courts should make better use of compassionate release laws, which allow elderly or terminally ill inmates to qualify for parole.”
In his closing statement, Baliunas wrote that “for elderly prisoners like Larry Hoover, justice does not require more prison. It requires the courage for all of us to say enough.”
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