Reprinted from the November 2, 2009, issue of 'The Leonard Letter'
A weekly electronic newsletter about
California government, business and taxes Bill Leonard, Member State Board of Equalization
Visit http://www.billleonard.org/

Fifteen years ago this week California voters approved the Three Strikes law requiring that after two prior convictions on serious felonies, someone found guilty of another felony be sentenced to 25 years-to-life in prison. Three Strikes is often criticized as being responsible for the problems with our state prisons or for putting people who should not be in prison behind bars. If you are tempted to believe such poppycock, then take a look at a 15th anniversary report about Three Strikes. You will see data showing the effectiveness of the law even though only one out of every nine eligible third strikers gets the "25 to Life" sentence. Keep in mind that the average third striker has five prior serious or violent felony convictions, and those are only the crimes for which that person was caught and either tried or pled out to. When we passed Three Strikes, there were 125,605 people in state prison. There were 318,946 violent crimes committed that year and 692,717 property crimes. In 2007, those numbers had changed dramatically: prison population was 171,444; 191,493 violent crimes were committed; 457,885 property crimes were committed. During that same time, our state's population increased dramatically from about 31 million to over 37 million. So, despite a population increase, we have seen three million fewer crime victims, nearly 10,000 fewer murders and realized $54 billion in savings. Check out more Three Strikes info here: