Correctional Development 3 Strikes as California Goes,

Correctional Development 3 Strikes

As California goes, some say, so goes the nation. There is little doubt but that the single most important event in recent correctional history in the nation's progressive state was the development of the Three Strikes laws. Having accepted this idea, the state is now faced with massive budget shortfalls and is confronting federal court orders to immediately and dramatically reduce its prison populations simply because it is too full to treat appropriately all of those put into prison under this get-tough idea.

The Three Strikes law came about following a number of specific crime incidents and legislative actions. A timeline of the evolution of these events has been developed by National Public Radio. The key elements of the effort began formally with Republican Governor Pete Wilson signing the originating legislation into law in March 1994. The law was recognized as being more severe than the approaches of other states, but basically a mandatory life sentence was required for persons convicted of three felonies (though in actuality the person could be paroled after 25 years). Apparently not yet satisfied, the public followed that move by passing a state electoral initiative that added more stringency to the law, hoping to make it difficult for judges to waiver in the sentences they provided. From that point forward, various legal challenge and sensational stories kept the issue alive (such as the case of a person getting life for stealing a slice of pizza) and approved the concept. By the year 2000, the public was coming to grips with the impact of its decision and passed Proposition 36, which allowed offenders with drug use problems to get treatment instead of just prison time. In 2006, after the efforts of several legislators that would require the third offense to be a serious or violent offense, Governor Schwarzenegger refused to change the law, leaving it predominately in place and controlling California's get-tough strategies until today. [1: Tanya Ballard Brown. "Timeline: The Evolution Of California's Three Strikes Law," National Public Radio. Accessed January 26, 2012 at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114250301. ]

By 2009, however, California was confronted with a reality that it would not be able to get around: It now has too many people in its prisons. A three-judge federal court review panel looked at California's system and ordered major reductions of prisoners, noting that the existing system was unable to maintain adequate health, mental health and related protections for the prisoners. California challenged the ruling but has now come face-to-face with the fact that the court's recommendations would have to stand. And now that state is being forced to undertake specific reforms that center on "shortening sentences, diverting nonviolent felons to county programs, giving inmates good behavior credits toward early release, and reforming parole." Tens of thousands of people are now being sent from state facilities to county facilities, which will likely force lesser offenders out of those jails even though there are few if any community correctional programs to send them to. As the panel put it: "The evidence is compelling that there is no relief other than a prisoner-release order that will remedy the unconstitutional prison conditions." [2: Solomon Moore, "Court orders California to cut prison population." February 9, 2009. The New York Times. Accessed on January 26, 2012 at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/us/10prison.html. ]