69 percent of Americans think we imprison way too many people

(Image credit: John Moore/Getty Images)

published 16 July 2015

The U.S. has the world's highest incarceration rate, and the ACLU recently commissioned a poll to examine public attitudes on it. They found that majorities of both political parties (54 percent of Republicans, 71 percent of independents, and 81 percent of Democrats) agree that it's "important" to reduce the prison population. Sixty-nine percent of all Americans held that view.

In addition, fully 87 percent of respondents said that drug addicts and the mentally ill should be in treatment, not prison, while 77 percent said prisons are likely to cause nonviolent criminals to re-offend due to poor rehabilitation techniques.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox