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October 17, 2024
Fascinating data from Marshall Project's political survey of people in 785 prisons and jails
The Marshall Project has released this new article, headlined "'Trump Remains Very Popular Here': We Surveyed 54,000 People Behind Bars About the Election," reporting the results of their sizeable survey of incarcerated persons. I recommend the article in full in part because it has lots of interesting data on a lot of topics at the intersection of politics and prisons. Here are excerpts to provide a bit of an overview:
In 2020, The Marshall Project’s first-of-its-kind political survey revealed strong support for Trump, shattering a commonly held notion that people behind bars would overwhelmingly support Democrats. This time around, we wanted to know what people in prison and jail thought about an election that has been cast as a contest between “a prosecutor and a convicted felon.”
More than 54,000 people in 785 prisons and jails in 45 states and the District of Columbia responded. Here is what we found:
- Most respondents said they would vote for Trump, and support was particularly strong among White men. A substantial minority of Black men said they’d vote for Trump, too, if given the chance.
- As previous surveys showed, a large share of people behind bars from all racial backgrounds don’t identify with either major political party — instead identifying as independent....
The Marshall Project partnered with two tablet providers in prisons and jails to conduct this survey. Ultimately, we ran two surveys, asking respondents to answer a few additional questions once Harris became the Democratic nominee. Participation in the survey was voluntary, so it’s important to keep in mind that responses are coming from a self-selecting group of people who may already be politically engaged and following the news....
“I’d say there is a majority of open support for Trump within the inmate population here, especially among the whites,” wrote Enrique Banda-Garcia, a Trump supporter who is incarcerated in Washington State Penitentiary. “And yes, we understand that Republicans are very tough on criminals and even tougher on us during our incarceration, nevertheless, Trump remains very popular here.”...
Some respondents were hopeful that Trump’s experience with the legal system would make him more sympathetic to people behind bars. Donarico Caudle, who is incarcerated in North Carolina, said in an interview that he thought Trump was going to take a look at problems after going through his own trial. “There are things that you see when you look at this legal system that’s dirty,” Caudle said....
Trump’s trial for paying hush money to a porn star before the 2016 election was closely watched by respondents of both parties.... Many respondents who said Trump should be incarcerated cited basic fairness: They were sentenced to prison time for their crimes, so Trump should be, too. “The law should be the great equalizer,” one respondent wrote. “No one should be above another in terms of the range of punishments nor given leniency simply because they’re a certain way (I.e. richer or a celebrity).”
For others, incarceration was a strategic choice. If the former president goes to prison, maybe he would be compelled to make changes when gets out. “Donald Trump needs to see with his own eyes what normal people suffer here in prison, and how unjust is all the laws and the prison system,” one respondent wrote.
Compared to people outside prison, incarcerated survey respondents were more inclined to be lenient toward Trump. Only a third of incarcerated people surveyed thought he should be sentenced to prison for his crimes, compared to about half of people on the outside, according to an Associated Press poll. Even those who disliked Trump cited their feelings about prison being harmful as a reason to oppose his incarceration.
October 17, 2024 at 10:15 AM | Permalink
Comments
This may be the reason. We wish this were not true.
https://lifeforpot.blogspot.com/2024/10/we-wish-this-were-not-true.html
Posted by: beth curtis | Oct 17, 2024 12:03:50 PM