The Three Strikes Laws

Phase 5: Individual Project (Three Strikes Laws)

By Patricia Drury

August 8, 2013

Issues of Diversity in Criminal Justice

CJUS625-1303A-01

Umeki Ramsey

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Prisons were originally built for the purpose of rehabilitation and as an alternative to corporal punishment. However ‘get tough on crime laws’ such as California’s 1994 Three Strikes Law (TSAYO) has created an overcrowded, overburdened justice system. The purpose of the new proposed policy is to eliminate some of the burden by utilizing alternative sentencing methods already in place and create new ones where none currently exist. “Today’s overcrowded prisons with their depressing conditions are largely the result of ‘get tough on crime’ attitudes that have swept the nation the last few decades” (Schmalleger, 2008). In addition to overcrowded prisons is the concern of older prisoners incarcerated under the three strikes law. The cost of medical care for these inmates stretch already tight fiscal budgets and under equipped, under staffed prisons.

PROBLEMS TO BE ADDRESSED UNDER THE THREE STRIKES LAW: 1. Overcrowding in the prison system and unfair sentencing practices “Should a third strike offender be sentenced 25 to life for petty theft?” 2. The expense of housing older inmates for nonviolent and minor offenses. 3. The three strikes law does not deter crime a more effective method is needed.

The elderly inmates who were incarcerated when they were young, under the three strikes law is relatively small in numbers, around 10%, they will serve 20 years or more. Five percent of them will never be released, they will die in prison. “The ‘greying’ of America’s prison system is caused by: general aging of Americans reflected in the prisons, new and harsher sentencing laws mean inmates are locked up longer, and larger prison built in the 1980’s and 90’s provided more space for inmates which meant no early release and those sentenced for life will die...