Public Discussion about Critical Issues in Criminal Justice Reform

Abstract

Through analysis of six focus groups with 44 black and white residents of the greater Boston metropolitan area, this paper presents a qualitative assessment of people’s “zone of acquiescence” for justice reinvestment reform, paying particular attention to people’s criminal justice budget preferences and their openness to sentencing reform for violent offenders. When asked to write their own crime prevention budgets, participants chose to invest more money into the infrastructure and social services of communities than into police, probation, or prisons, arguing that the former is in greater need of funding than the latter. Most participants were initially resistant to sentencing violent offenders to community-based sanctions, but after discussion, they endorsed a discretion-centric, case-by-case treatment of violent felons. These data suggest that, when properly framed, policymakers have more “political space” to reinvest money directly into at-risk communities and release some violent offenders without provoking public backlash than they have so far assumed.