Three-strikes law mandates doubling sentences for a second felony conviction and imposing life in prison for a third conviction. Many would think that the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment would over rule this law, but it was not in violation. On a website that I found they calculated that $4.5 billion to $6.5 billion per year was needed to accommodate this law. The intent of the three-strikes law is, of course, to lock up repeat offenders longer, and that requires the construction and operation of more prisons. Some say that police and court costs could be saved by not having to deal so often with such offenders once they are locked up, but greater prison costs overcome such savings.
I am very indifferent about his law; in studies it has shown that the rates in crime have decreased. Bill Jones is the author of the three strikes law.
Prison Industrial Complex #occupysanquentin
Tacoma prison
Law, RuthHe reports, a thirty-eight percent decline in violent crime since the passage of the three strikes law. He also anticipated that approximately one million crimes have been prevented and $21.7 billion in costs associated to those crimes have been saved. When we look at these rates they sound amazing but if we are putting third time offenders to a life of incarceration, it will cost is tremendously. For a person to stay in jail for a year it cost twelve thousand dollars, imagine that times sixty years, and later including elderly care for prisoners.
If the state got rid of strikes and instead pledged that those convicted of a serious crime serve their full sentence it would be much more logical. In other words, taking on a law that sends all those convicted of a serious felony to prison, eliminates good time for felons so that they must serve...