U.S. Attorney General William Barr lashed out at progressive prosecutors in a speech yesterday at the Grand Lodge Fraternal Order of Police's conference in New Orleans, calling them "anti-law enforcement" and "'social justice' reformers" who will send the cities where they serve back "back to the days of revolving door justice" with the result of "more crime, more victims."

Given that earlier this year Barr stood by "The Case for More Incarceration," a 1992 report released by the Department of Justice when he first was attorney general, his disdain for progressive prosecutors is unsurprising.

Barr's speech was standard tough-on-crime fare: He argued that anything that scaled back mass incarceration would inevitably lead to more crime. It cannot be stressed enough that a wealth of data disproves that. Longer prison sentences provide little to no additional deterrence, often incapacitate beyond what public safety requires, and can actually increase the risk of reoffending upon release. Rehabilitation efforts are consistently more effective outside prisons than inside them, and victims increasingly indicate that they prefer a focus on rehabilitation and reintegration instead of punitiveness.

While most progressive prosecutors have not been in office long enough to measure their impact on crime (or punishment), it's worth noting that violent crime fell by over 5 percent in Philadelphia during District Attorney Larry Krasner's first year on the job, and by 4 percent during Kim Foxx's first two years in Chicago. None of this is dispositive proof that the policies of progressive prosecutors can lead to reductions in crime, but it pushes back strongly against Barr's fearmongering.

And as top law enforcement official at the Department of Justice, Barr can reduce victimization in the violent, dysfunctional DOJ-controlled Bureau of Prisons in a far more direct way than Krasner or Foxx are able to on the streets of Philadelphia or Chicago.