Three Strikes and You're Out

A couple of nights ago on PBS, I saw the episode of the show "P.O.V." which dealt with the "three strikes law." The show put forth the idea that the three strikes law is too extreme and needs to be re-written, for theoretically, a child who has shoplifted and stolen someone's bicycle has two strikes against him, and if he commits a third non-violent felony, he will be sentenced to a minimum of 25 years. In a debate after the show, it was mentioned that in fact the district attorney and judge are able to use some discretion, but it was also proposed that 2500 people have been sentenced unfairly under this law.

Back when I was going to high school, I was given the impression that our judicial system was based on the principle "better 10 guilty people go free than one innocent person be imprisoned." Thanks to politicians and the media, this no longer seems to be a popular attitude. It's ironic that one of the early proponents of the three strikes law, Polly Klaas's father, later came to see that it was inherently unjust.

Relating this to this course: a lawyer who was involved in the campaign against the passing of three strikes said that one of the reasons the bill passed was that many white people tend to believe most crimes are committed by minorities (another idea promulgated by white politi-cians and the media), so as long as we are only incarcerating "them" and "their kids", it's okay. If white people believed that most crimes were caused by white people, instead of building more jails, we would be more interested in helping "our" kids.

In support of the idea that there was an element of racism in the passing of three strikes, I believe the program stated that the three strikes law has been disproportionally used against minorities (just as minorities are disproportionally represented on death row). I wish this was brought up in the debate after the show, as it would have been interesting to see how the black mayor of San Diego, in favor of three strikes, would have addressed this.