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| Three strikes law called ineffective |
| By Los Angeles Times |
| Published: 03/08/2004 |
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A decade after it was enacted, California's three strikes sentencing law has had little effect on violent crime while costing taxpayers $8 billion to imprison tens of thousands of felons, most of them for nonviolent offenses, according to a study released last week. The report by the Washington, D.C.-based Justice Policy Institute also found that blacks have been imprisoned under the three-strikes law at 10 times the rate of whites, while the rate for Latinos has been almost 80 percent greater than for whites. Three strikes inmates in California now number more than 42,000 -- one-fourth of the state's prison population, according to the study. Supporters of the sentencing measure, widely viewed as the toughest of its kind in the United States, quickly dismissed the study, saying putting repeat criminals in jail has saved $28 billion in costs associated with their crimes. The law doubles the sentence for an ex-felon convicted of a second felony. Someone with two previous convictions for violent or serious crimes, if convicted of a third felony of any type, can be sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. The three strikes law "has been the most effective criminal justice initiative in the history of California," said former Secretary of State Bill Jones, the law's co-author. A frequent critic of California's three strikes law also challenged the new report's conclusion on costs. "I don't think it has cost us $8 billion or anything close to that yet," said UC Berkeley law professor Frank Zimring. But he said backers of the law have greatly exaggerated its deterrent effect. "It has had a very small ... impact on crime." And third strike penalties, he said, "are sort of grossly disproportionate to the crime." The new report offered a number of provocative findings that include the following: Nearly 65 percent of those convicted of second or third strikes were serving time in prison for nonviolent crimes. They included 672 third-strikers serving 25 years to life in prison for drug possession -- a number that was greater than the number of third-strikers in prison for second-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon and rape combined. While only two ex-felons were serving 25 years to life for petty theft a decade ago, that number soared to 354 by September. The six largest California counties using three strikes most frequently had lower decreases in crime rates than the six that used the law less often. Similarly, states that did not have three strikes laws had lower average rates of violent crime -- and larger average drops in violent crime -- than the states with the tough sentencing law. For example, New York, which does not have a three strikes law, had much larger drops in total crime and violent crime than California. |
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