The Flaws In The Three Strikes Law The Three Strikes Law was originally enacted in 1994 in California. The law came about in 1992 when a young innocent girl named Kimber Reynolds from Fresno was murdered in an attempted purse snatching by two convicts who had previously just finished serving their times in prison. Immediate after the death of Kimber, her father Mike was inspired to take action to help prevent innocent people from getting harmed by criminals. Mike Reynolds and his group put together a law and named it, “Three Strikes and You’re Out!” law. They then successfully collected enough signatures to qualify for a statewide referendum. As a result, an astonishing number of 72 percent of the state’s voters were in favor of it and eventually the law was legislated in March of 1994. The Three Strikes Law severely increases the sentence for those individuals who were convicted of any serious felonies more than two times. Anyone convicted of three separate violent or serious felonies will be sentenced to life in prison. The statute is being used by only certain state courts in the United States including the state of California where it used to mandate a sentence of 25 years to life in prison for any kinds of felony for individuals who already have two prior convictions. The reason behind the changes of this law and the fact that only certain, but not all states in United States are implementing the law is simply because of the many flaws this law has. The first problem the Three Strikes Law has is that it’s obstructing a judge’s ability to make the punishment fair enough to fit the crime for the felons.
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The intended purpose of this law was to keep murderers, kidnappers, rapists, and molesters in prisons away from the society. However, in contrast, Stanford Three Strikes Projects (STSP) provides some examples of sentences for individuals who were sentenced under the Three Strikes law, “Project clients have been given life sentences for offenses including stealing one dollar in loose change from a parked car, possessing less than a gram of narcotics, and attempting to break into a soup kitchen” (Stanford Law School, “Stanford Three Strikes Project”). Notwithstanding the hope of putting the murderers, kidnappers, rapists, and molesters away for good, the imprisonment of majority of convicts who were sentenced under the Three Strikes Law are serving their unjust sentences for committing nonviolent and non-serious crimes. Even though Proposition 36 was passed in California and changed the third strike of the law to be a serious or violent crime, the intended purpose of this law is still basically skewed with its implementation for the first two strikes since the prison cells are senselessly being filled with inmates with petty, non-serious convictions. Comparatively to the flaws of Three Strikes law, the theme of the book David and Goliath written by Malcolm Gladwell primarily focuses on the limitations of power. Since the Three Strikes Law is basically based mainly on fears driven by the ignorant assumptions that all criminals are incorrigible, judges or those with powers are abusively employing the law and senselessly sending basically every offender into prisons. According to a research on crime rate conducted by Robert Nash Parker, a sociologist and director of the Presley Center for Crime and Justice Studies at UC Riverside, asserts, “California increased its prison population significantly yet obtained roughly the same crime drop at the same time as states that had similar laws, but without their impact, as well as that obtained by states that did not pass any laws aimed at reducing violence through vast increase in the prison population.” Corresponding to the main concept that Gladwell claims in his book of how having too much power, giants like David can easily get exposed for many weaknesses. In this particular case, the giants are the judges and their ultimate strength that they possess is the power to grant the Three Strike law upon any offenders which has created many unintended consequences such as a staggering increase in the prison population without a corresponding decrease in crime. Furthermore, when the Three Strikes Law was formed, the creators and supporters oversimplified this
The intended purpose of this law was to keep murderers, kidnappers, rapists, and molesters in prisons away from the society. However, in contrast, Stanford Three Strikes Projects (STSP) provides some examples of sentences for individuals who were sentenced under the Three Strikes law, “Project clients have been given life sentences for offenses including stealing one dollar in loose change from a parked car, possessing less than a gram of narcotics, and attempting to break into a soup kitchen” (Stanford Law School, “Stanford Three Strikes Project”). Notwithstanding the hope of putting the murderers, kidnappers, rapists, and molesters away for good, the imprisonment of majority of convicts who were sentenced under the Three Strikes Law are serving their unjust sentences for committing nonviolent and non-serious crimes. Even though Proposition 36 was passed in California and changed the third strike of the law to be a serious or violent crime, the intended purpose of this law is still basically skewed with its implementation for the first two strikes since the prison cells are senselessly being filled with inmates with petty, non-serious convictions. Comparatively to the flaws of Three Strikes law, the theme of the book David and Goliath written by Malcolm Gladwell primarily focuses on the limitations of power. Since the Three Strikes Law is basically based mainly on fears driven by the ignorant assumptions that all criminals are incorrigible, judges or those with powers are abusively employing the law and senselessly sending basically every offender into prisons. According to a research on crime rate conducted by Robert Nash Parker, a sociologist and director of the Presley Center for Crime and Justice Studies at UC Riverside, asserts, “California increased its prison population significantly yet obtained roughly the same crime drop at the same time as states that had similar laws, but without their impact, as well as that obtained by states that did not pass any laws aimed at reducing violence through vast increase in the prison population.” Corresponding to the main concept that Gladwell claims in his book of how having too much power, giants like David can easily get exposed for many weaknesses. In this particular case, the giants are the judges and their ultimate strength that they possess is the power to grant the Three Strike law upon any offenders which has created many unintended consequences such as a staggering increase in the prison population without a corresponding decrease in crime. Furthermore, when the Three Strikes Law was formed, the creators and supporters oversimplified this