Pew Poll Finds Voters Support Juvenile Sentencing Reform For Those Who Commit Lesser Crimes
In the 1990s, the country and its lawmakers took a “get tough on juvenile offenders” stance. Keeping the community safe by getting delinquents off the street and locking them up was the attitude.
Judging by a 2014 Pew Charitable Trusts poll, the times, have changed.
Pew commissioned Mellman Group and Public Opinion Strategies to survey 1,200 registered voters—Republicans, Independents, and Democrats—nationwide from June 21 to 26, 2014. Key among the findings were:
- Those surveyed want to keep low-level offenders out of facilities and use the savings for probation and other programs.
- Reform of the juvenile-justice system received strong support across the spectrum of political parties, regions, age, gender, and racial-ethnic groups.
There was a wide mix of topics. Should juveniles be treated differently from adults? Sixty-five percent of those polled felt they should be. Seventy-one percent agreed the juvenile-justice system should be all about rehabilitation.
When asked about these statements, “It does not matter whether a juvenile offender is sent to a juvenile corrections facility or supervised in the community. What really matters is that the system does a better job of making sure that he or she is less likely to commit another crime,” a whopping 85 percent agreed with them.
Several items addressed voter concerns with the high cost of incarceration. Of those polled, 85 percent agreed that “State-funded juvenile corrections facilities are government programs, and just like any other government programs, they need to be put to the cost-benefit test to make sure taxpayers are getting the best bang for their buck.” Ninety percent were for putting more serious juvenile offenders in the expensive correctional facilities and creating “alternatives for less serious juvenile offenders that cost less.”
Following up on that, most of those polled agreed that status offenders (truants, runaways) and technical violators (disregarding probation and curfew) should not be placed in a facility.
Nine in 10 polled want families, schools, and social-service agencies to have a stronger role in dealing with adolescents committing less serious infractions. For instance, “Schools should be expected to address offenses that occur at school, such as damaging property or acting out, and only involve the juvenile justice system in extreme cases.”
It’s clear, at least among those that were contacted, that the nation’s priority should be to get youthful offenders services that will change their behavior so they don’t commit more crimes. And incarceration is often not the answer.
One can only imagine what the response to this poll would have been in the 1990s. Yes, the times they have a-changed.
