Prop 36: Yes

A “Yes” on this proposition modifies the “Three Strikes” law which imposes a mandatory 25 years to life sentence on criminals convicted of three felony offenses. Prop 36 changes the law to require that the “third strike” be a serious or violent felony.  This would not apply if either of the first two strikes were for certain nasty crimes such as rape, murder or child molestation.

For several years I worked with a woman who’s brother then in his 20’s was serving a 25-life sentence under “three strikes”.  His first two offenses were for assault, which is obviously serious and violent, however they were barroom brawls, not attacks against women or random people on the street. They also were not serious enough to result in long prison terms because this man was still young when he was convicted of his third strike for drug possession.  I question whether tax money is well spent keeping this person and others like him in prison into his 50’s and beyond.

California prisons are so severely over-crowded that the courts are ordering prisoner releases.  Unless we want to pony up even more billions to build and run even more prisons we need to make some changes. We need to use our prisons wisely to keep dangerous people off the streets and not fill them up with non-violent offenders due to inflexible sentencing formulas. 

As I have pointed out before, legislators cannot back off on punishment laws, no matter how expensive or in-effective, without facing certain death in the sound-bite wars.  However, prosecutors and police with well considered requests for law enforcement tools can usually get  them from the legislature if they ask.  As long as a politician can claim to be "tough on crime" it doesn't seem to matter if they are"dumb and expensive on crime."  So if we are ever going to get the ever expanding, clogged and bloated prison system in California under control it will have to be done through the initiative process.

The LA Times is urging a “Yes” vote in a well written op-ed.