In a Pew Research Center survey of public opinion among Black Americans, participants answered questions about issues of racial inequality and social change in the United States. Around 90 percent of Black adults say multiple aspects of the criminal justice system need to change in some way in order to ensure equal treatment, with 95 percent prioritizing policing, courts and the judicial process. Some 94 percent say the prison system needs an overhaul.
A little more than half of adults surveyed believe that in order to treat Black people fairly, the criminal justice system, courts and policing must be completely rebuilt. According to the October survey, smaller percentages believe the same about the political system (42 percent), the economic system (37 percent) and the health care system (34 percent). More Black Americans surveyed, while believing policing needs to change significantly, want police spending in their communities to stay the same (39 percent) or go up (35 percent), than want police department spending in their neighborhoods to go down (23 percent). Those Black adults who believe police funding should decrease in their area named medical, mental health and social services as top priority for spending budgets previously ear-marked for police.