New Polling: Overwhelming Mandate in Ohio for Justice Reform

Ohio is often seen as a bellweather state and we wanted to see what voters there thought about criminal justice reforms. The results are now in. Our new poll shows voters in the Buckeye state have given policymakers an overwhelming mandate for reforms to fix our broken criminal justice system.

• Few Ohioans believe the state’s criminal justice system is working well as it is now: Just 15% of Ohio voters think the state’s criminal justice system is “working pretty well,” with two-thirds of voters (67%) saying it needs either “major” or “minor” reforms.

• There’s strong agreement that rehabilitation is important: By a significant 85%-13% margin, Ohioans strongly agree with the statement: “What really matters is that the criminal justice system does a better job of making sure that when an offender does get out, they are less likely to commit another crime.”

• Ohioans support alternatives to incarceration for some non-violent offenders. And, by 80%-18% margin, Ohioans strongly agree that, “Some of the money Ohio is spending on locking up nonviolent offenders should be shifted to strengthening mandatory community supervision programs like probation and parole.”

• Mandatory minimums are not popular: 87% of those asked would support replacing mandatory minimum sentences with sentencing ranges so “judges can weigh the individual circumstances of each case … when determining the penalty.”

• Supporting these criminal justice reform proposals can help Legislators next November: Fully 60% of voters indicate they’d be “more likely” to re-elect a state legislator who favored the above courses of action to reform the state’s criminal justice system.

For more on our poll results in Ohio, click here.