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California’s very special approach to Three-Strikes Law

   The Three-Strikes law is a very strict law with a notion of putting to prison almost anyone with two previous criminal records for 25 years even if the offender stole a loaf of bread in the grocery store. It is a known fact that bad law has a price. The financial blowback from Three-Strikes laid waste to California’s already debt ridden budget. The price tag was $35,000 a year per inmate to maintain the more than 30,000 non-violent offenders in California prisons. This was passed on to California taxpayers at a rate of more than 1 billion dollars a year. And that figure got higher as more non-violent offenders were imprisoned.

   So far, it appears that California is ready to soften its tough on crime stance. The petition is considered a “stopper” by signature gatherers. One mention of amending “Three Strikes” gets the attention of a prospective signer. In a petition campaign that has already collected nearly 400,000 signatures, Citizens Against Violent Crime (CAVC) is ready to put an initiative on this November’s ballot that would amend the current law. If passed, California would cease to be the only place in the world where someone can be put into a maximum security prison for 25 years to life for stealing a pizza or a loaf of bread. The initiative needs only 375,000 valid signatures to qualify.

   Adding fuel to the signature collection drive is a recent report that concludes that since its enactment, California's current three-strikes law has had little impact on cutting the rate of violent crime.
“So who supported the current law? Who wanted a pizza thief in lockdown for 25 years? The list is bipartisan. Democratic State Senator Dianne Feinstein. Democratic Ex-Governor Gray Davis. Current Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Republican Ex-Governor Pete Wilson. Republican State Senate Candidate and original Three-Strikes author Bill Jones. Republican Ex-State Attorney General Dan Lungren. Democratic Ex-State Attorney Bill Lockyer. The list is disgustingly long.”

   “Will any of them flip flop? Schwarzenegger is already hedging his bets. As the campaign season plays out and the initiative gathers steam, the once so-called “tough on crime” crowd will gradually throw their support to the new law. After all, it will be hard to oppose the grandfather of Polly Klaas, who is chair of CAVC.”

   “The current 3-Strikes law has only added to our grief over Polly’s death,” Klaas says. “My family is deeply disappointed by the law that passed in her name because of its failure to focus on hard-core criminals by diverting critical resources to the prosecution of non-violent offenses.”

   According to Klaas, the new law “will resolve this terrible miscarriage of justice and restore a sense of purpose to my granddaughter’s death. “Locking up shoplifters for 25 years” Klaas says, “is not equivalent to being tough on crime.”

   While no issue is the without its proponents and opponents, the Three-Strikes law has earned the support of those have had an objective "let's wait and see what this law will do" attitude. Any law or policy that results in lower crime and reduced prison population can't be a bad thing.

   Two hundred years ago, Thomas Jefferson said the first duty of government is the protection of its people. Sixty years ago, Franklin Delano Roosevelt talked about the 4 freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want and freedom from fear. Historically, when great societies have been destroyed the source of its destruction has come from within. It's the war that is being waged on our streets that has become the modern day threat to America. When crime rates go up, people move to "safer" places. They take their families, their jobs and their contribution to the local tax base. Those who can't leave buy guns and hunker down with bars on their windows, razor wire on their fences and bricks and sandbags next to their walls. Businesses can't stay open when they are being robbed and vandalized every night and their customers are being mugged and intimidated. Crime is a cancer that, left unchecked, will ruin every city in America.

   We often speak about the "war" on crime. If this is a war then it should be fought like a war. Many would argue that the United States' biggest mistake in Vietnam might have been going there in the first place. But once there, it is certain that our biggest mistake was an unwillingness to fight with a resolution to win. It was unfair to send soldiers to a war that no one intended to win. It's unfair now to send our police and law enforcement community to fight a war on crime that politicians have no will to win. It's a sad testimony to the nature of man that laws like Three-Strikes are necessary. Crime and criminals have plagued every society on earth since the dawn of time. The only difference is in the last 50 years there has been an element in our society that has attempted to explain and excuse criminal behavior based on some aspect of early childhood development gone wrong or the lack of enough of society's resources being spent to prevent a child from becoming a criminal.

   Facts are facts. For every 1000 people there will be a certain number who choose crime as a career. But if we allow that career to continue, that is our choice. Our tolerance grows shorter as crime comes closer and becomes more violent. I pray that we never lose our vigilance. The enemies of Three Strikes are all around us, and most of them have never committed a crime. They are members of the liberal news media, they serve in our state and federal government, they teach in our schools and colleges. They have already proposed laws to eviscerate Three Strikes and will continue to do so. They are not bad people, but they have been given eyes and yet cannot see. Thinking they are acting out of goodness, they will gladly undo all we have accomplished and lead our state back to the dark days from which we have emerged.

Bibliography

Siegel, Larry J. Criminology. Belmont: Thomson Higher Education, 2006
Currie, Elliott. Crime and Punishment in America, New York: Henry Holt and Company Inc., 1998
http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/9087.pdf
http://www.justicepolicy.org/article.php?id=452

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