The old joke is that many conservatives are just former liberals mugged by reality. It got a new twist this month when a liberal congresswoman was mugged in her own apartment building elevator and suddenly started talking tough on crime.

The real story, however, is no laughing matter. Let’s hasten to express relief that Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) escaped without major injuries when assaulted last week and to commiserate with her for the fright and the (mild) injuries she did receive. A lawmaker’s bad policy judgments are no reason to take delight in her distress.

Still, it is instructive to note the sudden change in tone from Craig, who represents a closely contested district near Minneapolis. She has a mixed record on criminal justice. She personally opposed a Minneapolis ballot initiative to eliminate the city’s police department, and she has supported federal bills to provide money to local police forces.

On the other hand, Craig supported the so-called George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which even reformist Republicans said went way too far in hampering police from enforcing laws against violent suspects. She was quick to blame Floyd’s tragic death-by-police incident on “systemic racism,” not the guilty officer whose lengthy record of civilian complaints went unaddressed because of his police union.

Craig also attended a California fundraiser for a leftist group that advocates defunding police, and she kept her district director on staff for two years after the staffer publicly supported such defunding movements while tweeting “Burn. It. All. Down.,” and other incendiary statements.

That’s why, in the wake of being assaulted, it was interesting to hear her say today on CBS Mornings that “ we have to get these repeat offenders off the street ” and elaborate on that sentiment at length. She is correct, and it’s long past time for Democrats to relearn this.

All too often, lawmakers and activists approach criminal sentencing from all-or-nothing extremes. One side opposes all “reforms” that tend toward leniency because they think the lack of a deterrent effect will cause crime to rise across the board. The other side, which has been so ascendant for nearly a decade that even former President Donald Trump embraced it , pushed the idea that there’s little need to punish people at all for “minor” crimes and that even violent offenders should get multiple “chances” out of prison.

The wiser middle ground would still provide for arrest, conviction, and punishment even for nonviolent offenses — but with alternative sentencing, not prison terms. A dedication to better probation, parole, and rehabilitation services can be cost-effective and humane. On the other hand, violent criminals, especially violent repeat offenders, should be penalized as harshly as possible.

The latter was the goal of the “Three Strikes” provision originally written into federal law by former Rep. Bob Livingston (R-LA) in the early 1990s, modeled after successful legislation in Washington state and after a proposal a decade earlier by former Louisiana state Rep. Ron Faucheux. Applied exclusively to offenders who are both violent and recidivist, it mandated life sentences without parole upon conviction of a third such crime.

The provision worked like a charm, contributing mightily to a massive drop in violent crime nationally for the next two decades.

Alas, too many states copied the “three strikes” form but applied it to nonviolent crimes as well. Result: Too many nonviolent people got stuck in prison for life when they might otherwise have been rehabilitated.

In overreaction to that problem, Trump’s First Step Act foolishly contained a provision reducing the Three Strikes life sentence to just 25 years. This means a lot of violent recidivists still in their 40s and 50s, still easily strong enough to do great damage, can return to the streets.

That’s why everyone should listen to the newly mugged-by-reality Craig. At all stages, charging, pretrial detention, prosecution, and sentencing, violent criminals merit little mercy. The mercy should be saved for the victims.