First Step, Three Strikes

How is it that our prisons have ended up the way they are? Simple, it’s not that we Californians are habitual criminals it’s that our laws are in place to be tough on crime. Since 1994 we have begun a hardline attack against crime. That year the Californian people passed the most significant referendum to affect the prison system of our time. It became known as the Three Strikes Law. It alone has been more responsible than anything else for the overcrowding, over-paroling, and for the overall declining stability of our prisons. The Three Strikes Law was originally designed to keep violent criminals off the street by inflating their sentences. The idea of criminals serving 25 to life sentences after two previous bouts of prison time generally means they won’t be willing, or able, to commit crimes. This idea appealed to California voters and Proposition 184, Three Strikes Law, passed by a landslide.

Three Strikes was originally intended to only target violent offenders. However, it was written so that any felon who gets a third felony or misdemeanor/wobbler on his or her record is sentenced to the lengthy punishment. It has worked. Violent felons have been removed from the streets because of this law. In 2002, a report showed that there were a grand total of two million fewer crimes over a nine year period after Three Strikes compared to the nine years before it [1]. Those same criminals are still locked away in our prisons serving 25 to life. While these offenders are off the streets the state is saving money by not having to pay costs for criminal damages associated with murder, robberies, and burglaries. Keeping those criminals off the streets saves an estimated $24 billion. The problem occurs when inmates are well into their older years. The costs of health care problems outweigh the money saved by incarceration. By the time the inmates are dependent on medical care their risk of reoffending drops significantly.

We currently have 8,400 inmates serving possible life term sentences. Of those, 1,300 are because of drug offenses and 2,500 of them are there because of a property crime [2]. This means that 3,800 of the 8,400 inmates have life sentences because of non-violent reasons. People are spending their life in prison for crimes such as stealing donuts.

In 2004, Proposition 66 aimed to reform the Three Strikes Law by redefining what constituted a serious crime deserving of life imprisonment, essentially disallowing offenders from being incarcerated for misdemeanor/wobbler offenses. It also intended to redirect drug abuse felons to treatment centers and encompass more sexual offenders under the Three Strikes Penalty [4]. Voters did not feel as though changes needed to be made to the Three Strikes Law and therefore voted it down 53% to 47%. If the measure would have passed we would have reduced the 3,800 people serving life terms on drug offenses down to a more manageable number. This would have reduced the number of people we would have had to support in their senior years. Drug offenders are particularly more expensive to keep healthy since they have already abused their bodies with harmful drugs. Our first step in fixing our prison system should be to reintroduce legislature similar to Proposition 66. Three Strikes is currently a burden and a blessing on our government, it helps keep violent offenders off the streets but also costs the state millions on nonviolent offenders. We can also extend reforms that help release terminal or elderly inmates earlier on parole. A bill or proposition like Proposition 66 with a few minor changes would allow California the benefits of locking away violent offenders while not wasting time and money on the less risky nonviolent offenders.



[1] Reynold, Mike. (2004). "3-STRIKES 1994 to 2004 A DECADE OF DIFFERENCE" Three Strikes.org Accessed (2010, Mar 1) URL: http://www.threestrikes.org/TenYearReport04.pdf

[2] Leonard, Jack. (2009, May 13) "Law Students help free three-strike offenders" Los Angeles Times. Accessed (2010, Mar 1). URL: http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/13/local/me-threestrikes13

[3] Smarter Voter. (2004, Dec 15) "Proposition 66" Accessed (2010, Mar 2). URL: http://www.smartvoter.org/2004/11/02/ca/state/prop/66/