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Voters Across The Country Mixed On Criminal Justice Issues

A mixed picture has emerged on crime and law enforcement following an election in which  Donald J. Trump made crime a big theme of his campaign, seeking to tie murder and illicit drugs to migrants at the border, the New York Times reports. While several jurisdictions rolled back some criminal justice reforms and toughened penalties, a number of prosecutors who supported policies aimed at rehabilitation and reducing racial disparities won new seats and fended off challengers.  “This appears to be a highly idiosyncratic election that varied substantially by district, by state and by ballot initiative,” said Amy Fettig, the acting co-director of Fair and Just Prosecution, which supports progressive prosecutors around the country. “It would be wrong to say that the results speak to the pendulum swinging very far in either direction.”


In the suburbs of Detroit, where crime last year was at record lows, Prosecuting Attorney Karen McDonald cruised to re-election over her Republican opponent, who accused her of being “soft on crime.” Many Republican candidates had criticized liberal policies that they said eroded public safety. There were similar results in prosecutor's races in suburban Chicago, and Albany, New York. But  liberal Los Angeles district attorney, George Gascón, is losing by about 20 percentage points to his Republican challenger, Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor who ran as an independent, according to the latest vote count. And voters also appeared on their way to approving a recall of Pamela Price, who pledged to hold the police accountable for misconduct, in Alameda County, which includes Oakland. 

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A daily report co-sponsored by Arizona State University, Criminal Justice Journalists, and the National Criminal Justice Association

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