As Attorney General Jason Miyares campaigns for reelection, his office released shocking statistics directly linking more than 4,500 crimes to the previous Democrat administration’s early release of nearly 10,000 inmates.

In an interview with The Daily Signal’s Joe Thomas, Miyares spoke candidly about the ways that Governor Ralph Northram’s policies wrecked the state’s criminal justice system.

The Enhanced Earned Sentence Credit “essentially allowed you to get up to 50% off your sentence depending on the category of crime,” Miyares said. “The worse the crime is, the more time potentially you could get off your sentence.”

In 2023, over 9,600 inmates were released, with roughly 50% of those criminals being rearrested for other crimes. (RELATED: Spanberger: Police Immigration Enforcement “A Distraction of Resources”)

“That’s over 4,500 new victims in Virginia that would not be victims of crime but for the foolish policies of this criminal-first, victim-last mindset that decided to ignore the victims and to care more about felons than about the safety of Virginians,” Miyares said.

Miyares called on lawmakers to close early release loopholes that cause recidivism.  

“This is an unfair and cruel policy that is failing Virginians,” he said.

Previous Democrat administrations also extended voting rights to more than 200,000 convicted felons including murderers and those still incarcerated.

McAuliffe’s mass clemency was later overturned by the Virginia Supreme Court. (RELATED: Sex Offender Gained Access to High School Girls Locker Room By Claiming to Be Trans)

Studies show that soft-on-crime policies hit working-class voters and law enforcement officers especially hard.

Miyares, the first Hispanic-American elected statewide in Virginia, faces Democrat Jay Jones in November’s General Election. Jones has made filing lawsuits against Donald Trump a key issue in his campaign.