Washington, DC – In response to a report released today by the Justice Policy Institute (JPI), which found that California, the only state in which any felony can trigger a life sentence as a third strike, uses the strike policy much more frequently than other states and that violent crime has dropped more in states not enacting three strikes laws than states with Three Strikes, the Congresswoman issued the following statement:

 “This report shows that, on Three Strikes, California is far out of step with the rest of the country. We can change this, and we must change this.  I voted against the original Three Strikes measure 10 years ago as a Member of the California State Assembly.  During the debate proponents argued that Three Strikes was the answer to crime and this report proves their arguments were just plain wrong.  As a State Senator, I co-authored SB 2048 legislation to limit the application of Three Strikes to violent and serious offenses.  Many major California news outlets supported that effort.”

 “When you consider that over 65 % of the people being locked up under Three-Strikes are incarcerated for non-violent offenses, which is draining our state’s budget of millions that could be used for education and alternatives to incarceration, the choice is simple.”  

“California is struggling to recover from a budget catastrophe; reallocating our resources away from the Three Strikes policy that is over-used and under-regulated makes fiscal sense.  And the JPI study clarifies the issue -- why should California “strikeout” four times as many persons as all other Three Strike states combined?  Three Strike laws are imbalanced and illogical; they are responsible for unfairly locking up so many African-American and Latino males for non-violent offenses.  The laws do not deter violent criminals, and are an irresponsible response to a serious problem of crime prevention and rehabilitation.”

“The Three Strikes laws were wrong when introduced 10 years ago, and wrong now.  I commend the work of JPI on conducting this much-needed report and hope that its release helps move our efforts to repeal, or at least modify California’s Three Strikes Law.”

A copy of the report Three Strikes and You're Out: An Examination of the Impact of Strikes Laws 10 years after their Enactment, can be obtained at www.justicepolicy.org September 23, 2004, or by contacting Malik Russell at (202) 363-7847, ext. 308.



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