This survey data, combined with the median voter theorem, doesn't bode well for a reduction of mass incarceration in the United States, although given that most of these decisions are made at the state and local level, one would expect growing disparity between red state and blue states on prison sentence lengths.
I don't know if there is currently, or historically has been, a large disparity between states in the length of the prison terms that they impose for comparable crimes correlated with their partisan leanings. A recent Bureau of Justice Statistics (federal government) survey has the data, but the publication I have a link to doesn't break it down on a state by state basis.
From here.
1 comment:
Hum... So the current value of Prison Sentence Length is about where it should be based on the overall leanings. But if we recall the efforts to normalize same sex marriage, it's just a matter of finding the compelling narrative to move the needle. For many conservatives it was realizing that many (mainly gay) people were born that way and discriminating against them was picking on "crippled" people. So maybe that shows the form of a successful argument.
Cheers,
Guy
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