CHANGE OF HEART ON CRIMINALS

A poll released by the American Civil Liberties Union has found that
Americans are softening their views about how to treat criminals. The poll
found that a majority of Americans believed that it was possible to
rehabilitate nonviolent offenders and that prisons were failing to prepare
inmates for their return to society. The poll also found that 61 percent of
Americans opposed mandatory sentences for nonviolent crimes and that 75
percent favored treatment and probation for nonviolent drug use. The
telephone poll, conducted in January, surveyed 2000 people, with a margin
of error of plus or minus two percentage points.

Fox Butterfield (NYT)