This new article from The Hill, headlined "Poll: 3/4 of Americans support criminal justice reform," provides highlights from a notable new survey:
Three-quarters of Americans think the nation’s criminal justice system needs to be significantly improved, according to a new poll out Thursday....
A Justice Action Network poll conducted by Robert Blizzard, a partner at the Republican-leaning Public Opinion Strategies, found a majority of Americans surveyed, 76 percent, believe that the country’s criminal justice system needs significant improvements.
Of the 800 registered voters polled between Jan. 11 and 14, 87 percent of Americans agree that some of the money being spent on locking up nonviolent offenders should be shifted to alternatives like electronic monitoring, community service and probation.
Two-thirds of voters — 65 percent — support fair chance hiring, and 87 percent of voters strongly support replacing mandatory minimum prison sentences for non-violent offenders with a system that allows judges more discretion. Eighty-five percent of voters, meanwhile, agree that the main goal of the nation’s criminal justice system should be rehabilitating people to become productive law-abiding citizens.
Many more of the poll particulars are available via this Justice Action Network press release and through this PowerPoint. The press release emphasizes reasons why politicians should be paying attention to these issues:
[V]oter support for bipartisan justice reforms is overwhelmingly high, especially among women, who remain a crucial voting bloc heading into the 2018 midterm elections, and may determine the makeup of the House in November....
“This is not a partisan issue–voters strongly believe that the country’s criminal justice system needs serious improvements,” said Robert Blizzard, Partner at Public Opinion Strategies. “Significant majorities of Republican and Democratic voters across the country favor these reforms, including key 2018 target constituencies like independent voters and women voters. I can’t emphasize enough how strongly voters support these reforms. As a political pollster looking towards 2018 I think all politicians should pay attention. Go back to 2006, women voted for the democratic candidate by double digits. In 2010, women favored the GOP candidate and helped deliver the house to Republicans. Key constituencies are strong on these reforms and they can help give a lift to candidates everywhere.”
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