'Three Strikes' Laws Hurt Low Income,
Minority Men
A man gets a 25 year to
life sentence for stealing a piece of pizza. A homeless man
receives the same for attempting to steal food from a church. A
man gets a life sentence for convictions
for stealing meat, then for stealing a television, then for
stealing a VCR. A small-time thief gets two 25
years-to-life sentences for stealing $153.54 worth of children's
videotapes, including "Snow White" and "Cinderella,"
from a Southern California K-Mart.
One California judge has
compared such sentences to the ordeal of Jean Valjean of Victor
Hugo's Les Miserables, who spent 19 years in prison for
stealing a loaf of bread.
Over 3,500 men currently
incarcerated in California as third strikers have received at
least a 25 years-to-life sentence for nonviolent and non-serious
offenses. Proposition 66 will
amend California law to ensure that a third strike sentence can
only be given with a violent or serious offense.
