May 7, 1999
By Daniel H. Muñoz
In 1993 12-year-old Polly Klaas was abducted at knifepoint in northern California, setting off one of the largest manhunts in history. It took two months but they finally found Polly Klaas, dead, and arrested paroled felon Richard Allen Davis for her murder.
The murder of Polly Klaas became the galvanizing force behind the voter initiative "Three Strikes and You're Out" law.
While Polly Klaas was the unofficial poster child for three strikes, the push behind the initiative came from Mike Reynolds, whose 17-year-old daughter, Kimber, had also been murdered by a paroled felon. "Three Strikes" was a tough-on-crime initiative and was initially rebuked by legislators. Reynolds then launched a signature drive to qualify "Three Strikes" as a voter initiative, but it wasn't until the Polly Klaas tragedy that the initiative effort took-off.
Fueled by the media frenzy surrounding the brutal murder of Klaas, "Three Strikes" won handily in 1994.
The "Three Strikes" law states that a defendant, who is convicted of any current felony, with prior convictions of two or more "violent" or "serious" felonies, must receive a life sentence with a minimum term of 25 years. The promise of three-strike's law was to reduce violent crime by putting repeat violent offenders behind bars for life.
Five years after the passage of Three-Strike Senator Tom Hayden is sponsoring a bill, SB 79, that will amend three-strikes. Hayden stated that the "Three Strikes" law needs amending because District Attorneys are prosecuting too many minor crimes under three strikes which was not the original intent of the law.
As introduced by Hayden in December 1998, SB 79 would limit the application of the third strike to "serious" and "violent" felonies.
In a Senate analyst of SB 79 it was noted that the amendment would not renege on the promise made to voters in 1994 but revise current law to require a third "strike" be a serious or violent felony - as the first two must be, "In order to achieve any sense of justice, sentences must be proportionate to the crime."
The question being raised is, does
a drug addict or petty thief fall in the same category as cold-blooded,
first-degree murderer. Should the punishment for possession of
any amount of cocaine be the same as for premeditated murder?
For the supporters of SB 79 it is a question of the punishment fitting the crime, the overpopulation of the prison system, the soaring cost of the prison industry, and the effectiveness of "Three Strikes" in detering crime.
In a recent study by the Justice Policy Institute it was found that of the nearly 40,000 inmates imprisoned under the "Three Strikes" law, the great majority were convicted of non-violent crimes. Thirty percent were convicted of drug violations, another thirty-seven percent were found guilty of property crimes. While only one percent of "Three Strikes" prisoners were convicted murderers.
Hayden's Senate Bill 79 passed the Committee on Appropriations by a 4-2 vote on April 6 and comes up for debate on the floor in mid-May with the vote on the bill expected May 15 or 16.
Prior to urging the committee members to vote aye on his bill, Hayden addressed members of FACTS, (Families to Amend California's Three Strikes), on the steps of the Capitol building after they held a demonstration for the passage of SB 79.
"I introduced SB 79 so we don't unnecessarily and irrationally lock up people for nonviolent crimes," said Hayden. "There is a dragnet in the ghettos and barrios where young males are stopped, frisked, arrested, and programmed for prison. They should be programmed for education."
From a Los Angeles Times story it was reported that 71% of California 3-strike felons in state prisons are African-American or Latino. African Americans making up the largest group, 43.7% and Latinos comprise 27.8%.
The FACTS rally featured narratives from tearful relatives of jailed Three Strikes inmates, including a mother clutching her infant son whose husband was sentenced to over 100 years. "My baby will never get to know his father," said the tearful woman.
While the total prison population continues to climb, as March 1999, 159,911, the effect of three strikes have been "striking out."
According to Justice Policy Institute statistical study, conducted by doctoral candidate Mark Males, those counties with the most three strikes convictions did not correlate to lower rates of crimes. While counties such as Alameda and San Francisco have sent a much smaller percentage of defendants to prison under "Three Strikes" they have had a greater decrease in crime, particularly violent crime than did counties such as Sacramento and Los Angeles, that relied heavily upon "Three Strikes" in charging and sentencing clients.
In the meantime the cost to taxpayers to house the "Three Strikes" inmates continues to rise.
Recent data documents the cost of "Three Strikes" law, particularly in Los Angeles County, which prosecutes approximately 40% of the "Three Strikes" cases statewide. Through 1997, the cost to the LA Public Defender's Office has been over $80 million, costs to the prosecution totaled approximately $75 million and costs to the Sheriff were approximately $140 million. In 1994 it was determined that full implementation of "Three Strikes" would cost the state an additional $5.5 billion per year.
According to RAND Corporation researcher, Dr. Peter Greenwood, Ph.D., approximates 10% of the reduction in crime in California can be attributed to the "Three Strikes" law. Another RAND study, Diverting Children From a Life of Crime: Measuring Costs and Benefits, concludes that a combination of graduation incentives and parent training could achieve a similar amount of crime reduction for less than $1 billion, or less than 20% of the cost of the "Three Strikes" program.
Patsy Knights, whose son was sentenced to 135 years under "Three Strikes" and founder of the San Diego chapter of FACTS, says, if SB 79 passes it will not help her son. But it will prevent other mothers from feeling what she describes as "a pain in her womb" from probably never being able to see her son as a free man.
"My son's first two strikes were not violent crimes and should have been struck," she said. "The Three Strikes law is an unjust bill because the time in most cases does not fit the crime. The bill amounts to a war on people of color. It is nothing more than legal genocide."
For information of FACTS contact Patsy Knights at (619) 744-8812, P.O. Box 481, San Diego, CA 92104.
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