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Activists who have been pushing to rein in the excesses of a highly punitive system hope the resulting glow will help advance their agenda, which includes such measures as banning no-knock warrants, making police disciplinary records public and rethinking lengthy sentences for juveniles.

They also hope that voters will distinguish between calls to defund the police, which Republicans used to vigorously attack Democrats, and bipartisan efforts to improve accountability and fairness. Mr. Trump kept the two issues separate, attacking Democrats relentlessly for what he said was their failure to support law enforcement, while running a Super Bowl ad about a woman to whom he gave clemency.

I actually think the winning argument was you can be for law and order, and you can be for second chances, said Holly Harris, the executive director of the Justice Action Network, a nonpartisan advocacy group. You can be supportive of the police and also think the punishment should fit the crime.

This nuance does not always play with voters. In Georgia, Senator Kelly Loeffler, a Republican, trashed her Republican opponent, Representative Doug Collins, for his support of criminal justice reform, edging him out to face the Democratic challenger, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, in a runoff.

But outside of bitter political contests, criminal justice reform offers something for just about everyone: social justice crusaders who point to yawning racial disparities, fiscal conservatives who decry the extravagant cost of incarceration, libertarians who think the government has criminalized too many aspects of life and Christian groups who see virtue in mercy and redemption.

At the federal level, both parties have proposed police accountability bills. Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has recently signaled that he is open to reinstating parole for federal prisoners, which was eliminated during the tough-on-crime 1980s. President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has promised to reduce incarceration and supports abolishing mandatory minimum sentences and expanding mental health and drug treatment.

Relatively few voters ranked the criminal justice system at the top of their list of concerns, even after the killing of George Floyd in May thrust policing into the national spotlight.

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Here's One Thing Republicans and Democrats Agree On: Criminal Justice Reform - The New York Times