Is Rural America Getting Tired of Tough-on-Crime Policies?
Across political, racial, and geographic lines, more Americans seem ready to move past the age of mass incarceration.
Incarceration policy represents the reddest of red meat. From Richard Nixon’s calls for “law and order,” to George H.W. Bush’s Willie Horton ads, to President Trump’s promises to jail or deport “bad dudes,” modern American leaders have reliably used punitive rhetoric to get elected—and have overseen the expansion of the carceral society that inevitably followed.
There’s evidence now, however, that the allure of these appeals may be waning. A , released Thursday by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and the Vera Institute of Justice, provides the latest data in a growing body of evidence suggesting that Americans actually want fewer prisons—and
