Three Strikes Law = Criminal Justice?

Three Strikes Law mandates 25 years to life in prison for offenders

who have committed 3 "serious" offenses.

What is serious? A felony....stealing $400 in golf clubs from a golf

course in El Segundo.

Sounds like we're being tough on crime huh?

In the past 15 years, (the life of California's Three Strikes Law)

California has :

- Incarcerated 42,445 inmates under this law

--> 65% of them for Non-Violent Offenses

(theft, vandalism, drug use)

---> @ a cost of $30,929 per inmate (under 50yrs old)

----> 71% of these inmates are Black and Hispanic

(facts1.com)

Would you like to explain the value in spending $8.53 Million Dollars

per year to house non-violent offenders?

5 Reasons why Three Strikes Law should be abolished:

1) Creates a violent situation for Law Enforcement who encounter "third

strikers" who don't want to "go back" to prison

2) Aforementioned Costs

3) Aforementioned disporportionality minority confinement (DMC)

4) Imposes harsh sentences on not-so-violent offenders

5) Our constitution speaks of rulings that fit the crime, not

"one-stop-shops"

Why do you think California can afford to maintain this legislation

despite budget shortcomings forcing nearly every branch of our state's

government to close its doors?

-Aaron