'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.

To learn more about three strikes, see:

• Families to Amend California's Three-Strikes' (FACTS) Top 150 Unjust 3-Strike Stories

• The deterrent effect (Sonoma Index-Tribune, 7/30/04)

• Information on Proposition 66, on the November ballot

• Three Strikes (60 Minutes, 7/10/03)   

• Doug Kieso's The California Three Strikes Law:  The Undemocratic Production of Injustice (December, 2003)

• Homeless man's case sparks debate over 3-strikes law (CNN, 4/29/99)

• ACLU/SC Urges U.S. Supreme Court to Reject California's Use of Three Strikes Law for Petty Criminals

• California Department of Corrections Report Second and Third Striker in the Institution Population

• Families to Amend California's Three-Strikes' FACTS About California's 3-Strikes Law