3-STRIKES LAW IS OVERRATED IN CALIFORNIA, STUDY FINDS

Seven years after its enactment, California's three-strikes law has
increased the number and severity of sentences for nonviolent
offenders - and contributed to the aging of the prison population -
but has had no significant effect on the state's decline in crime,
said a new study by the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit research
group.

The three-strikes law requires that those convicted of any three
felonies be sentenced to 25 years to life. There is a two-strike
provision, as well: those convicted of a second felony receive a
doubled sentence. As of May, the study found, California had 6,721
prisoners sentenced under the three-strikes law and 43,800
second-strike convictions.

"Crime had been declining for several years prior to the enactment of
the three-strikes law, and what's happening in California is very
consistent with what's been happening nationally, including in states
with no three-strikes law," said Marc Mauer, an author of the
Sentencing Project's study, which was released today. The project has
helped to establish alternatives to incarceration nationwide.

"The real impact of the law is a tremendous distortion of
crime-control resources," Mr. Mauer said. "As the 25-year-to-life
inmates stack up, California will be housing a disproportionate share
of elderly inmates. We know that 50-year-olds commit far less crime
than 25-year-olds, and every dollar going into housing a 50- year-old
inmate is a dollar not going into dealing with a 16-year-old
beginning to get into trouble."

Nationally, he said, about half the states have passed some form of
three-strikes legislation. But in most states, only violent felonies
are included, and fewer than 100 people have been sentenced under the
laws.

The majority of both second- and third-strike convictions in
California are for property, drug or other nonviolent offenses, the
study found. By 2026, the study estimates, California will have
30,000 inmates serving sentences of 25 years to life at a cost of at
least $750 million - and more than 80 percent of them will be 40 or
older.

In many cases, the study said, the three-strike convictions amounted
to egregiously disproportionate punishment.

For example Scott Benscoter, who had two felony convictions for
residential burglary, was sentenced to 25 years to life under the
three-strikes law for stealing a pair of sneakers. One homeless Los
Angeles man's third strike was trying to jimmy the kitchen door at a
church where the priest had previously given him food. Another man's
third strike was the theft of $20 worth of instant coffee.

A spokesman for Bill Lockyer, the state attorney general, says that
while California's three-strikes law is the broadest in the nation,
that breadth helps to ensure that habitual criminals will be kept off
the street.

"It's true that most three-strikes convictions are for nonviolent
offenses, and there's plenty of room for legitimate debate about
whether the net in California is too wide," said Nathan Barankin, the
communications director for Mr. Lockyer. "But no one will argue with
the fact that the law does incapacitate people who have serious or
violent habitual criminal records. And when you take habitual
criminals off the street, there's no question that it has an effect
on crime."

Mr. Mauer, however, points out that while California crime dropped 41
percent from 1993 to 1999, New York, with no three-strikes law,
showed the same decline.

California's three-strikes law, passed in 1994, was the second in the
nation, after Washington State's the prior year. The California
measure was affirmed on a ballot initiative by a ratio of three to
one.

At the time, Gov. Pete Wilson called the law a strong deterrent for
potential offenders and Attorney General Dan Lungren called it the
crown jewel of the state's toughened crime laws.

Mr. Lungren then ran on his record in law enforcement as the
Republican candidate for governor in 1998, but was defeated by Gray
Davis, who promised to be tougher on crime than his opponent - and
has blocked all efforts to soften the three-strikes law.