Three Will Get You Twenty-Five to Life
In 1993 a new law was conceived in California. It
was a law that would lower incidents of violent crimes and also curb repeat
offences by people previously convicted of a “violent” offence. The general
definition for the word violent in the laws wording was never clarified. This
California law termed “The Six Percent Solution” dealt with the idea that
roughly 6% of criminals commit approximately 70-80% of total crimes (Greg
Jones, Michael Connelly, Kate Wagner, 2001). With this new law, that would
later become known as the Three Strikes Law, the government would have a useful
new tool to help put this small but destructive percentage of criminals behind
bars for good, thus significantly lowering the crime rate. Since this law was
passed in 1994, it is becoming clearer and clearer that these laws do not work
as intended. These laws fail to put the proper people behind bars, they drive
up the prison population, and, finally, they cost the taxpayer a pretty penny
that could be put to a more useful and effective task.
The
more I researched this topic the sadder I became. The stories of people put
behind bars for 25 years to life are nothing but astonishing. Stephan Bell had
two counts of burglary, the last count occurring in 1989, in Nevada before
moving to California. In May of 2000 he was caught taking a bicycle from a
garage. He received 25 years to
life (Families to Amend 3-Strikes, 12-00).
On April 26, an appeals court upheld a 25-years-to-life sentence for Gregory
Taylor, a homeless person convicted of burglarizing a church pantry in Los
Angeles. His "crime" was stealing food (Vanessa Lewis, 1999). The justification from the court for this
travesty of justice was, the prosecutor disagreed that Taylor’s previous
convictions were none violent, and noted that robbery was the forcible taking
of property (Vanessa Lewis, 1999). These
people are obviously not in the violent 6% of criminals listed above and they
are only two cases in thousands of cases just like them. While stealing a bike
from a garage is a bad thing to do, it hardly requires a life sentence.
Now just what happens to all these people who are imprisoned for 25 years to life under this law? They are placed in state funded and controlled corrections facilities. The prison population in the state of California has, and continues, to increase dramatically since the induction of the Three Strikes Law. In 1999 the California Prison Design Capacity (amount of people prisons are designed to hold) was 75 million, the actual population in these institutions was 215 million (California Legislative Analyst’s Office, 1999). California’s prison population is the fourth largest in the nation and is quickly closing ground on first with the passing of Thee Strikes Laws in conjunction with Mandatory Minimums Laws (California Legislative Analyst’s Office, 1995). With overcrowding comes more violence, crime, and drug use in the prison system. Prisoners are packed four to six at a time into a space designed for two, this makes them violent and harder to control.
With overcrowding comes he need for more prisons, more guards, and more weapons to keep control of the prisoners, and this costs money. It’s not the state’s money or the government’s money that pays for these expensive forays, but your money. You pay not only for the prison, but for the prisoner as well.
The Department of Corrections estimates that the measure will add about 71,000 inmates to the prison system by 1998-99, increasing the population to 144,000 inmates by 2003-04, and further increasing the population to 274,000 inmates by 2026-27 and annually thereafter. As a consequence, the department estimates that the costs of operating the prison system will increase by about $1.4 billion by 1998-99, $3 billion by 2003-04, and $5.7 billion in 2026-27 and annually thereafter. The department also estimates that it will need to build up to 25 new prisons by the end of the decade to keep up with the growth in prison population at a cost of more than $12 billion. (California Legislative Analyst’s Office, 1995)
An increase of 5.7 billion annually! Boy, that sure is a lot of our hard earned dough to be spending on housing people who take bikes from garages. In 1995 it cost the state of California 21,000 dollars a year to house a single prison inmate. The average cost of supervising a parolee is about 2300 dollars a year. Let’s see now, put the guy who took the bike on parole and save 18,700 dollars a year, I think you can see my point on this one.
California’s Three Strikes Laws are ineffective, overpriced, and they make the state’s attempts at rehabilitation harder due to overcrowded jails. People who do not deserve to be in jail for life are waking up each day facing this harsh reality. Stuffed in overcrowded prisons they have no hope of getting out for 25 years. That would be 300 months or 9000 days. That’s a long time to be put away for taking a bike. You are the ones who are paying for this. You are the ones condoning this by sitting silently while the government makes money off of your inaction. Most of all, you are the ones who can stop this by taking the time to oppose such laws in your own states and fighting laws in states where they already exist. Look into it and you will be moved.
Works Cited
California Legislative Analyst’s Office “Crime Rate Remains Stable Despite Sharp
Increase in Imprisonment” Web Page (1995) http://www.lao.ca.gov/cgcj3.html
Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes Law “100 Three Strike Stories” Web Page
(2001) http://www.facts1.com/cats.htm
Jones, G. “State Commission on Criminal Sentencing
Policy” Web Article (2001)
http://www.gov.state.md.us/sentencing/reports/strikes.htm
Lewis, V. “Life in prison for taking food.” Workers World News Service 1 (1999): Front
page.