above - Dennis Kucinich and Donna Warren from FACTS



During the mid 1990s, at the tail end of a long crime wave, 23 states adopted three-strikes laws. But in most of those states, the statutes are rarely used and few prisoners are jailed under their provisions. California is different. It alone does not require the third strike to be a violent or even serious crime.

California's three-strikes law was adopted by referendum in a wave of public outrage after the 1993 murder of Polly Klaas, a 12-year-old who was abducted from a slumber party in her home by a twice-convicted kidnapper out on parole.

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Three Strikes and You're In For Life

By Peter Vilbig

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Tough love mom goes to criminal justice system for help…

Run time 6:15

Criminologists question such assertions, pointing out that crime plummeted nationally during the 1990s, and in some states with no three-strikes law at about the same rate as in California. In New York, for example, where there is no three-strikes law, violent crime also dropped by 40 percent during the same period.

Opponents of three-strikes attribute the drop in crime to a decrease in the number of young people—who tend to commit crimes at higher rates than older people—and to the superheated economy in the 1990s, which put many to work who might have turned to crime out of economic desperation.

They say that the latest rise in crime reflects the troubled U.S. economy, with unemployment that remains stuck at about 6 percent. Preliminary figures for the first six months of 2002 released by the FBI showed a 1.3 percent jump in overall crime, and steeper increases of 2.3 percent for murders, and 4.2 percent for burglaries and auto thefts.

Text from:

Three Strikes and You're In For Life

By Peter Vilbig

California judges have used the statute frequently, sentencing more than 7,500 people under its terms. Another 31,900 defendants have seen their sentences doubled under the law's provision for second-strike crimes.

Text from:

Three Strikes and You're In For Life

By Peter Vilbig