SAN FRANCISCO - (INT) - Younger Californians are taking a different approach to the future of the justice system and community safety. Support is eroding away from the attitude of lock 'em up and throw away the key.

A wide-ranging Field Poll found that nearly half of young people 18-29 strongly support community-based prevention strategies for promoting community safety over spending more money on police and prisons.

To improve safety, two in three voters strongly support having their local governments spend money to increase access to mental health services, provide more job training programs, increase support programs for young people and increase access to substance abuse treatment. A majority of young African-Americans agreed.

By contrast, 39% are strongly supportive of increasing the number of police, and just 11% favor building more jails and prisons as a way to make their communities safer.

A sizeable proportion of the state's voters – 39% – believe the justice system in California is unfair when it comes to respecting the rights of the accused and the accuser, convicting the right people, and giving the right punishments to lawbreakers.

Story Date: October 22, 2016