Policy Analysis
Shawn McFadden
CJA/464
11/26/2012 Scharlene De Horney

Policy Analysis In 1994, the state of California legislation and voters moved to make a major change in criminal sentencing laws also known as the three strikes law. It was brought forth by proposition 184. What the law suggested is a minimum sentence of 25 year to life for repeat offenders with prior serious of violent crimes. The voters passed this law because of the recent high profile murders cases and legislation reasoning is that criminals that are release from prison just get out committing more crime in the community. The rational of the three strikes law by legislation is that repeat offender are the most difficult for the state and local law criminal justice systems to manage. This is because most criminal that have served any sort of time are not deterred from committing further crimes once they are released. Some of the impact this law has made is that thousands of cases have been tried. By the end of August 1994 the case loads have doubles. There have been fewer guilty pleas because criminal have not been plea bargaining their cases out and taking their cases to jury trial hoping they will win their case and not get a third strike against them. There are more criminals being held in county jails awaiting trials so the jail population has almost doubled. Currently, the jail population in 28 counties, representing more than 70 percent of the state's total jail beds, are capped by court order. As a consequence of the large numbers of Three Strikes offenders awaiting trial, some counties have released more sentenced inmates in order to stay within their court-ordered population caps (Legislative Analyst's Office, 1995). Judges have been reducing some felony charges down to misdemeanors for those facing three strike rule so that the criminal does not have to spend the rest of their life in jail for a minor felony charge. As of the end of January 1995, there were 4,161 persons in state prison for conviction of a second-strike, and 120 offenders convicted of a third-strike. Of the offenders convicted of a second-strike, about 775 or approximately 19 percent, were for a violent or serious offense. The remaining approximately 3,300 persons were convicted of a wide variety of lesser offenses, the largest being possession of controlled substances and petty theft with a prior