New York is suffering from a massive crime wave and Gov. Hochul’s answer is more politically correct Newspeak. These renaming efforts had already been tried, including changing criminals to “justice-involved individuals”. The awkward Newspeak terminology never works or sticks for the most obvious reasons.

But there’s more here than that.

Even in the face of escalating crime and voter fears, Hochul is doubling down on pro-crime policies, after her and Cuomo’s administration helped unleash that crime wave by eliminating bail. Hochul has refused to apologize or back down from it. She’s up against Rep. Lee Zeldin, who is taking an anti-crime message in his campaign, and she’s still ahead. 

Hochul is afraid of the Left, she’s not afraid of a popular voter backlash and for now, New York voters are not disappointing her. The question is whether Zeldin and Republicans can break through and tell the truth about the Cuomo crime wave and the human costs of criminal justice reform.

A top political analyst told me Tuesday that Governor Hochul’s decision to substitute the term “incarcerated individuals” for inmates in state law is her way of trying to reconcile issues of justice with issues of safety. But Dr. Lee Miringoff says it’s a delicate balancing act when her opponent Lee Zeldin is accusing her of not being tough enough on crime. Hochul’s critics say she is once again putting the needs of the criminal ahead of the needs of the victim, while those who approve of the change say it gives the prison population a better chance at reintegrating into society.

There’s been zero safety here. 

And Hochul, like Cuomo, is keeping prisons and morgues open. 

Dr. Miringoff of Marist College says the Governor has already chosen a clear path on the issue of crime by not bringing the legislature back to deal with bail reform, and he believes she’s banking on this language change helping her with her base in November.

That’s who her base is, wokes and criminals.