Americans overwhelmingly oppose mandatory minimum sentencing


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More than three in four Americans are in favor of eliminating mandatory minimum sentencing for nonviolent offenders, a new poll conducted by Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) found.
Support for more flexible sentencing was strongest among adults 18-44, and weakest among men over 65. The position netted strong majority support across the political spectrum: Even the least enthusiastic group — those who considered themselves "very conservative" — were in favor of nixing mandatory minimums for nonviolent crimes by a two-to-one margin.
The survey also found that 79 percent of Americans agree that the "federal government is spending too much money on locking up nonviolent offenders" and could better devote those funds to other aspects of law enforcement, including services for victims of crimes and probation enforcement.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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