'THREE-STRIKES' RULING IS A BLOW TO REASON

Two Supreme Court rulings let a bad California law stand. But states with
similar laws can ill afford not to fix them.

A SUPREME Court majority finds nothing cruel or unusual in a 50-year prison
sentence for stealing nine children's videotapes - total value, about $150
- - under California's draconian "three-strikes" law.

If that sentence is not grossly disproportionate to that crime, then, as
dissenting Justice David Souter noted, "the principle has no meaning."

But in that case and another, the court refused to use the Eighth
Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment to rein in a
state legislature. The same 5-4 majority rejected the appeal of a man
sentenced, also under California's recidivist law, to 25 years without
parole for stealing three golf clubs.

The rulings virtually preclude further constitutional challenges to
"three-strikes" laws that mandate lengthy sentences for repeat offenders in
26 states, including Virginia.

Unfortunately, not all states were as careful as Virginia in drafting their
laws.

Where they were not, states should rethink these highly politicized
tough-on-crime measures, and apply dispassionate reason. Americans can no
longer depend on the high court to apply the brakes. And society cannot
afford the results.

In 2000, America had more than 2 million people imprisoned - almost twice
as many as just 10 years earlier. The cost to taxpayers is going through
the prison roof. In Washington state alone, for example, annual prison
spending also doubled in a decade, to more than $1 billion.

States have seen crime drop, though. "Three-strikes" laws have played a
part. They are important to public safety - but as just one of an array of
tools. The rest, including drug treatment, prevention and diversion
programs, are far less expensive.

Virginia's "three-strikes" law - written largely by newly installed state
Supreme Court Justice Steve Agee when he was a state lawmaker - applies
only to repeat violent offenders, who should be locked away.

Wise legislators should seek to be not the toughest on crime, just tough
enough.