In a sample survey taken from San Quentin inmates, more than half think a Donald Trump presidency has the potential to make America worse, while about 20 percent think things would be better under a Trump presidency.
About a third of the respondents said that a Trump presidency poses a direct threat to their future.
Almost 40 percent of respondents said their job opportunities outside of prisons were in jeopardy.
Close to 43 percent think policies toward immigrants and immigrant communities are under threat.
Slightly more than 41 percent said policies toward undocumented immigrants and undocumented immigrant communities are under threat.
Approximately 57 percent said the rights of minorities are under threat.
About a third think the rights of women are under threat.
Close to half said sentencing laws would get tougher.
Slightly more than 62 percent believe policing practices would get tougher.
The survey showed that 68 percent of the respondents were very supportive of the passage of Proposition 57 last November.
Proposition 57 gives the secretary of corrections, Scott Kernan, the ability to modify the sentences of some inmates who qualify as non-violent and allows him to give good-time credits to any inmate he sees fit. The new law also took away the district attorney’s ability to decide when to send juvenile offenders to adult courts and gave that determination to judges.
In the November elections, California voters not only decided to keep the death penalty on the books, but also approved speeding up executions by shortening the appeals process. The survey also wanted to know how inmates feel about those changes.
Nearly 61 percent of the respondents to the survey did not support speeding up the death penalty, while about 15 percent were very supportive.
–Juan Haines
