A criminal court “frequent flier” ran out of get out of jail free cards earlier this week.
Jamel Pringle – notorious amongst law enforcement for his quick and numerous cycles through the system – is now behind bars after his 168th arrest earned him a place at Rikers Island. He was arrested on Monday morning and charged with petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property in the fifth degree (both misdemeanors) after stealing over $430 worth of merchandise from the Rite Aid on East 96th Street and Second Avenue. The New York Post was first to report about Pringle’s arrest.
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Pringle hails from Queens and has racked up criminal court cases all over the city. Charges have ranged from other petit larcenies to public lewdness and criminal contempt. He has 14 open cases including one from July 2021 when he was charged with menacing, criminal contempt, harassment, and criminal possession of a weapon with intent to use, according to E-Courts, the electronic case database for the New York State Unified Court System.
Last month, Pringle was arrested four times in three different boroughs (Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island) which included an arrest on January 24 for allegedly grabbing a tip jar that contained $40 from a Cafe at East 102nd Street and Lexington Avenue. The career criminal has “one felony conviction, 88 misdemeanor convictions and 39 failures to appear,” according to the Post.
“On Feb. 3, Pringle was given a desk appearance ticket for petit larceny and public lewdness after cops found him exposing himself inside a CVS on Lexington Avenue near 96th Street,” writes the Post.
Though Pringle is currently a guest of the City through the Department of Corrections, his extensive criminal history has not often seen him spend time in correctional facilities. The Post attributes this to New York’s controversial bail reform laws under which misdemeanors are not bail-eligible.
However, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office argued that Pringle’s 39 failures to appear was a fair indication that he would not do so again and cited to “an amendment to the law that allows repeat offenders who commit a new felony or class A misdemeanor while out on a similar offense to have bail set if both crimes involved harm to a person or property.”
The Legal Aid Society represents Pringle in this matter and claimed his failures to appear were due to his stays in various psychiatric facilities. The judge agreed with the prosecutors and remanded the serial offender to Rikers until at least his next court date on February 18. Bail is set at $5,000 cash or $10,000 bond.
Let’s get real, the person should be housed, permanently, in a psychiatric facility. Any other punishment is a waste of both money, police and judge time, and the perp’s time.
With all of our self-professed legal superstars, and not one solution to many years, many perps problem.
I started living in NYC in the mid-80’s and remember what is was like to take the subway, walk home at night, etc… it was not fun. Hard to believe now that he did something positive, but credit must be given to Guiliani who hired Bill Bratton, who really improved the quality of life for all of us. From about the mid-90’s NYC was definitely on an upward trajectory, which continued all the way through the end of the Bloomberg era. Bill Di Blasio will go down in NYC history as the worst and most ineffective mayor.
The insanity of the bail reform must be reversed. Perhaps it should be three arrests and then you’re held at Rikers. This cycling through the system wastes time and resources that could be better utilized.