3-Strikes is Applied Disproportionately to Minorities, Poor
and Particular Counties
The 3-Strikes law is applied disproportionately to minorities and the poor.
In addition, particular counties enforce 3-Strikes much more stringently than
other counties. Is it justice that 3-Strikes is more likely to be applied to
someone's case simply because of their color, economic status or because of the
particular county they are in?
Unequal application of the 3-Strikes law is part of the greater unequal
application of the laws in the whole criminal justice system. The 3-Strikes
law, however, with its automatic minimum "25-to-life" sentence,
exasperates the inequality even more so.
African-Americans make up 7% of the California population, over 31% of the
California prison population, and 44% of the Third Striker population.
One might even ask if the criminal justice system demonstrates the
underlying racism in California. Would Californians pass "3-Strikes"
laws and build more prisons if 39% of WHITE men in their 20s (as opposed to
African Americans) were targeted and caught within the system? Why is it that
there aren't more sever laws against white-collar crime considering the recent
scandals that have erupted in Orange County--yet politicians will jump on the
band-wagon to "lock-up and throw away the key" on street crime?
PLEASE SEND US NEW DATA AND ARTICLES IF YOU HAVE THEM.
71% of 3-Strike felons in state prisons are
African-American or Latino.
In an editorial by Luis Carillo, an attorney in Monterey Park, he states
that 71% of 3-Strikers are African American or Latino. African Americans make
up the largest group, 43.7%, and Latinos comprise 27.8%.
"A white defendant like Brian McMorrow, who happened to be the
grandson of a big contributor to Dist. Att. Gil Garcetti, got a plea bargain on
a potentially third-strike attempted arson charge in 1995 and served less than
a year in jail, while minority defendants routinely receive 25 years to life
with similar histories and lesser current charges." Louis Carillo,
opinion piece, LATimes.
California Prison Admissions as of March 1, 1996
| |
2 Strikes |
3 Strikes |
| |
Number |
Percent |
Number |
Percent |
| Total Intake |
15,230 |
91.2% |
1,477 |
8.8% |
| Race/Ethnicity |
|
|
|
|
| Black |
5,657 |
37.1 |
649 |
43.9 |
| Hispanic |
4,981 |
32.7 |
400 |
27.1 |
| White |
4,043 |
26.5 |
373 |
25.3 |
| Other |
549 |
3.6 |
55 |
3.7 |
See "'Three Strikes and You're Out': A Review of State
Legislation" by John Clark, James Austin, and D. Alan Henry, National
Institute of Justice, September 1997 (which can be found on the internet as a
pdf file at: http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles/165369.pdf
. To read the pdf file, download
adobe
acrobat.
Latinos make up only 3% of attorneys in California,
but 34% of the prison population.
Latinos make up only 3% of attorneys in California, but 34% of the prison
population. See LATimes 7/18/98 and
CDC web site as of
11/1/98.
Racial profiling starts the discriminatory process
which leads to 3-strike sentences
Civil rights activists say a casualty from the war on drugs has been a
sharp increase in the incidence of racial profiling by law officers patrolling
highways across the country.
``Skin color has become a substitute for evidence in a way that really
resembles Jim Crow justice on the nation's highways,'' Ira Glasser, head of the
American Civil Liberties Union, said Wednesday as the group released its report
on the controversial practice.
The Drug Enforcement Administration's ``Operation Pipeline'' has trained at
least 27,000 law enforcers to use race as a factor in spotting potential drug
couriers, Glasser said.
The practice is so common that the minority community has given it the derisive
term DWB -- ``driving while black or brown,'' or stopping minorities for no
reason other than their skin color. SFGate, 6/3/99.
Over 40% of 2nd and 3rd Strikers are from Los Angeles
County
2nd and 3rd Strikers are being sent to prison in numbers that are not
necessarily reflective of each county's general prison commitment patterns. The
differences are primarily the result of variations in charging practices of
prosecutors and sentencing practices in courts.
| Selected Counties |
Total Prison Population |
2nd Strikers |
3rd Strikers |
| Alameda |
3.1% |
1.2% |
1.6% |
| Kern |
3.1% |
2.8% |
4.9% |
| Los Angeles |
35.8% |
43.9% |
41.5% |
| Orange |
5.4% |
5.3% |
5.2% |
| Riverside |
4.6% |
3.9% |
3.5% |
| Sacramento |
4.1% |
4.5% |
6.1% |
| San Bernadino |
5.6% |
4.5% |
5.1% |
| San Diego |
8.4% |
11.0% |
9.8% |
| San Francisco |
2.5% |
1.0% |
0.5% |
| Santa Clara |
3.6% |
3.9% |
4.0% |
Reported in Legislative Analyst's Office paper on Oct. 14, 1997 at the
Assembly Committee on Public Safety in Los Angeles.
San Diego and some other counties have strict
filing policies in Strikes cases
The San Francisco Recorder surveyed the extent to which judges were
exercising discretion six months after the decision in Romero. The
article noted that some prosecutor's offices, particularly San Diego, had very
strict filing policies in strikes cases.
Reported in program on Oct. 14, 1997 at the Assembly Committee on Public
Safety in Los Angeles.
OC D.A. obtains higher conviction rates than other
counties.
District Attorney Michael Capizzi obtains felony and misdemeanor
convictions at a rate higher than average. OC-Register, 6/24/97.
San Francisco D.A. applies 3-Strikes only to violent
felonies.
D.A. Terence Hallinan says he is keeping a campaign pledge to revise his
office's 3-Strikes policy to make it apply primarily to violent offenders.
"My temptation is just not to use the 3-Strikes sentencing procedure for
non-violent offenses," Hallinan said. During his campaign, Hallinan said
he believed then-D.A. Arlo Smith's policy was wrong to consider non-violent
crimes as 3rd strikes, which could send a person to prison for life for
stealing a pizza. Assistant D.A. Paul Cummins said that about 60% of the cases
that fell into the 3-Strikes category were narcotics-related. The San
Francisco Examiner, by Dennis J. Opatrny, 1/17/96.
Study shows whites fare better than African Americans
and Latinos in the California criminal justice process.
In February of 1996, the non-profit Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
issued a report raising questions about racial equality in arrests,
incarcerations and sentencing statewide.
In 1995, 39% of California's African American men in their 20s were in
prison, jails or on probation last year. By comparison, 10% Latino men and 5%
of white men in their 20s were in the same condition.
While previous studies have suggested that blacks and whites use drugs at
about the same rate, African Americans were arrested for drug offenses at about
five times the rate of whites during the height of the drug war in 1989.
African Americans are charged under California's 3-Strikes law at 17 times
the rate of whites in Los Angeles and 13 times the rate of whites in San
Francisco.
"At almost every stage of the criminal justice process, whites fare
better than African Americans or Latinos. One-third of whites who are
first-time offenders had charges reduced compared to one-quarter of blacks and
Latinos."
"White offenders also received rehabilitative placements in the
community at twice the rate of African Americans and Latinos. And prison
sentences for drug offenses were harsher for blacks and Latinos than whites:
Latinos went to prison at twice the rate of whites; African Americans one-third
more frequently."
"The data supports disparity at every level of the criminal justice
system," said center Executive Director Vincent Schiraldi, who co-authored
the report with the center's Sue Kuyper and Sharen Hewitt.
"If you want to know why the African American community does not trust
the judicial system, take a look at the report," Constance Rice of the
NAACP's Legal Defense Fund said at a news conference in Los Angeles, where the
report was released.
"If you sent the police into white neighborhoods with the same
[concentration], you would draw a much different conclusion" about who
commits crimes, Schiraldi said. "I am not accusing judges or district
attorneys of being Ku Klux Klan members. . . . I am talking about a subtler
form of institutional racism. And the difference to me is that if four in 10
young white men were under the control of the criminal justice system, we could
not be passing 'three-strikes' [laws] or building more prisons. We would be . .
. funding education, jobs and drug treatment."
LA-Times, 2/13/96.
Orange County D.A.'s Office has policy of filing every
provable 3-Strikes case.
Part of the reason the Public Defender's Office in Orange County is so
overwhelmed, defense attorneys say, is the District Attorney's Office policy of
filing every provable 3-Strikes case.
In some counties, most notably San Francisco County, prosecutors decline to
file some nonviolent cases as third strikes. In Orange County, prosecutors file
all provable 3rd-Strike cases but will, in some instances, amend the charges as
they progress through court, said Deputy District Attorney Mike Jacobs.
OC-Register, 6/10/96
In 1995, Jacobs had the following comments: "We have a policy against
striking priors. We don't care what other counties are doing. We are taking a
very hard line on it. If other counties are taking a softer line, that's their
problem. . . . It will be only rare instances that we agree to strike them.
Very rare." OC-Register,
10/22/95.
IRS demonstrates how prosecutorial misconduct of
targeting the defenseless can systematically occur
The U.S. Congressional hearings on the mistreatment by the IRS demonstrates
how prosecutorial misconduct is not the result of evil people as much as it is
the result of a system that rewards people for destroying other people's lives.
Accumulating statistics becomes such a competitive concern for the prosecutors
that they are more likely to target the defenseless poor because of the quick
kills that they can earn. LATimes,
9/26/97.
To believe that there aren't District Attorneys doing the same thing to the
poor in our criminal justice system is naive. The difference: instead of paying
fines, these people are sent off to concentration camps for 25 years to life.
The interest by the Senate and the news media in IRS misconduct
demonstrates another problem in our society: Our government and press can show
a concern for misconduct against predominantly white middle income business
owners, but show little concern when the criminal justice system blatantly
demonstrates unequal treatment to the very poor and minorities.
Counties vary in how they enforce 3-Strikes law
``A guy in Alameda with a rock of cocaine who qualifies for three strikes
faces a maximum of three years and technically probation,'' said San Diego
Superior Court Judge Thomas Whelan. ``If the guy drives down here to San Diego,
it's 25 years to life.'' See "Uneven Justice Under 3 Strikes Counties vary
in how they enforce law," by Harriet Chiang, San Francisco Chronicle,
9/23/96.
District Attorney Thomas J. Orloff of Alameda County
uses 3-Strikes law selectively
District Attorney Thomas J. Orloff concedes that his office relies on the
tough sentencing law "relatively selectively." But he makes no
apologies for doing so. "Everybody is free to use the three strikes the
way they think is most beneficial to their community," he says. "We
do it the way we think it works best."
If every possible case were filed under three strikes, "we simply
couldn't try them all." Orloff personally reviews every such case before
his deputies bring them into court. In most situations, the office seeks a
three strikes sentence only when the latest felony involves a serious or
violent crime. California Lawyer, October 1996, by Jennifer Kaae.
U.N. Study Assails U.S. Executions as Biased
The application of the death penalty in the United States is tainted by
racism, economic discrimination, politics and an excessive deference to
victims' rights, a U.N. human rights investigator reported Friday, as he and a
United Nations panel called for a worldwide moratorium on capital
punishment. LATimes, 4/4/98.
Although the death penalty is the most serious punishment and therefore
gets the most attention, the U.N.'s analysis is probably correct for every part
of the criminal justice system.
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3-Strikes.
Date last modified: 7/1/99.
