This interesting new report at The Lab - The Appeal details the results of interesting new polling showing broad support for clemency on behalf of a wide array of different types of persons in prison. The report is authored by Molly Greene and Sean McElwee under the headline "Poll: Use Clemency Power to Fight Mass Incarceration." I recommend clicking through to see all the details, but here is part of the narrative:
New national polling from Data for Progress and The Lab, a policy vertical of The Appeal, shows that voters support using executive clemency as a tool to reverse decades of over-incarceration, and commuting prison sentences for broad categories of people who can be safely returned to their communities.
Even after decades of excessively long and discriminatory prison sentences in the United States, and amid growing consensus that we need to dramatically reduce prison populations, executive clemency remains a largely overlooked and underused path toward reversing the punitive excesses of mass incarceration. Grants of clemency need not be rare exceptions....
While momentum for sentencing reform has grown at both the state and federal level, American prisons remain filled with people serving lengthy, decades-long sentences, including those imposed in the 1990s and the early 2000s, when the punitive zeal of prosecutors, judges, and lawmakers was at its peak. As a result, the American prison population is aging, with growing proportions of incarcerated people in their 50s, 60s, and older who increasingly require expensive medical care and who are unlikely, if released, to commit future crimes. People also remain imprisoned for convictions that result in far shorter terms today, meaning people are caged, separated from their families and communities, for reasons we now accept cannot be justified.
The power to commute sentences and pardon convictions — held, at the federal level, by the president, and by virtually all governors or governor-appointed boards in the states — can efficiently reduce this over-incarceration, while also redressing racial injustice that pervades the criminal legal system, including in sentencing. Our polling shows national support for using executive clemency in precisely this way. In particular, voters support commuting sentences of categorical groups based on age, health, time served, the nature of the offense, and as a means to reduce racial disparities and maintain consistency with current sentencing practices.
The polling results are relatively consistent no matter the specific inquiry in this poll, with roughly 50% to 70% of all respondents supporting sentence commutations for various populations and with Democrats generally supporting clemency by about 10% to 20% more than Republicans (and Independents in between). Again, I highly recommend clicking through to see all the details. Interestingly, a question that focuses on giving retroactive relief based on new laws generated the strongest of all the responses in support of commutations:
Commutations based on time served:
- 73 percent of likely voters, including 78 percent of Democrats, 78 percent of independents, and 65 percent of Republicans, support commuting the sentences for individuals who have already served more than what current law requires for that offense.
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