Both Democrat and Republican voters in half a dozen swing states support criminal justice reform efforts, according to a new poll.
The poll released by the U.S. Justice Action Network, a coalition of eight advocacy groups including Americans for Tax Reform, the Center for American Progress and the Faith and Freedom Coalition, found that more than 60 percent of voters in Florida, North Carolina, Nevada, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin believe federal prisons house too many non-violent criminals.
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Nearly 70 percent in the six swing states also said the federal government is spending too much to keep nonviolent offenders behind bars, and agreed the criminal justice system’s main goal should be rehabilitating criminals to become productive members of society.
“This poll reinforces what we’ve already known: voters agree that our criminal justice system is broken, and believe it’s time to advance reforms that not only save taxpayer money and reduce our skyrocketing prison population, but also invest in expanding opportunities for ex-offenders to turn their lives around,” said Holly Harris, the group’s executive director.
The poll comes just as criminal justice reform bills have stalled in the both the House and Senate, despite having bipartisan support and backing from President Obama.
Numerous conservative lawmakers believe the bill, specifically the Senate legislation, will release criminals likely to commit new crimes and thus lead to higher crime rates.
The poll also found nearly three quarters of voters in all six states favor changing the way that non-violent criminals are sentenced, including allowing judges to use their discretion in sentencing rather than having a one-size-fits-all mandatory minimum system, a key provision in the Senate legislation.
“Conservative states like Texas and Georgia have already shown that we can reform the criminal justice system, reduce recidivism, keep our communities safe, and save taxpayers money,” said Jason Pye, director of Justice Reform and Communications at FreedomWorks. “Thanks to conservative leaders like Sen. Mike Lee, Rep. Raul Labrador, and others, we can bring these reforms to the federal criminal justice system. All we need is the political will in Congress to make it a reality.”
View the full poll results here.
