For decades, politicians have been celebrated -- sometimes even rewarded -- for spouting "tough on crime" rhetoric and supporting laws that have inflated the nation's inmate population and made the U.S. the world's leading jailer . But voters from both parties have grown weary of such policies and overwhelmingly support broad reforms aimed at reducing the prison population, according to a public opinion poll released this week.

The poll , released by The Pew Charitable Trusts and conducted by The Mellman Group and Public Opinion Strategies, shows that large majorities of voters believe too many drug offenders are incarcerated; mandatory minimum sentences for a variety of crimes should be abolished; and that prisoners should be allowed to participate in jailhouse job-training or drug-treatment programs that could reduce sentences.

In short, voters consider the federal prison population to be "too large, too expensive, and too often incarcerating the wrong people," reads the Pew report.

This should not come as a surprise, Adam Gelb, director of Pew's Public Safety Performance Project, told The Huffington Post.

"Our surveys have shown for several years now that voters realize we are not going to build our way to public safety with more and more prisons," he said. "Large majorities believe we are locking up far too many people for far too long and that there are alternatives that work better and cost less."

Drug offenders make up nearly half of the federal prison population, and many have been locked up for nonviolent crimes. Sixty-one percent of survey respondents said "that is too many drug criminals taking up too much space" in prisons and would rather see that space used for people who have committed violent crimes or acts of terrorism.