Purpose of Families to Amend California's 3-Strikes

Our major purpose is to amend the 3-Strikes law in California so it is only applicable to violent felonies. Nearly 75% of 2nd and 50% of 3rd strikes within California are for non-violent offenses.

In addition, we advocate that the law be amended in the following ways:

1. the law should not be applicable to crimes committed before its enactment in 1994
2. the law should not count multiple counts during a single act as multiple strikes
3. the law should include a "wash-out" period such that convictions older than ten years do not count as strikes
4. burglary of unoccupied dwellings should not count as "serious or violent" strikes
5. the law should not be applicable to juvenile offenses

We plan to continuously grow and stay active until we get the law amended. We are a state-wide organization that is actively trying to influence the news media, the public, and politicians so they learn about the problems with the 3-Strikes law. We understand the public's fear, anger and perception of crime. Some of us felt the same way and supported the 3-Strikes law as a way to protect the innocent from violent criminals. But the facts and experiences, not widely known except by the families whose lives have been destroyed by the 3-Strikes law, support our belief that the 3-Strikes law does not serve or benefit the people of California but rather the growing Prison Industrial Complex.

Prisons are big business and people are the commodity.