Oklahoma voters across the political spectrum and demographic groups support bold criminal justice reforms. In fact, four out of five registered voters believe it is important to reduce the number of people who are incarcerated and only five percent want to spend additional tax dollars on jails and prisons.
The results could not come at a more critical time for policymakers. Oklahoma has the highest incarceration rate in the country for both men and women, and taxpayers spent $575 million on the prison system in 2017. This poll demonstrates that voters in Oklahoma overwhelmingly want state lawmakers to take bold action and reduce the jail and prison population.
These are just some of the findings from a statewide survey of 800 registered voters in Oklahoma conducted by Public Opinion Strategies on behalf of FWD.us. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percent and was fielded October 3-7, 2018.