The disparity in prosecutorial use of the Californian law has meant that the law is rarely used in San Francisco but is used heavily in other parts of the state. Critics have charged that this system introduces the worst of both worlds: mandatory sentences for those charged under the law and unequal application of the law. Prosecutors have the greatest discretion they may decide whether to count certain crimes as strikes when they file their criminal complaint. However, the California Supreme Court ruled, in 1996, that judges, in the interest of justice, could ignore prior convictions in determining whether an offender qualified for a three strikes sentence. The California law originally gave judges no discretion in setting prison terms for three strikes offenders. Not surprisingly, California's law has drawn the most attention in the debate over three strikes statutes. By 2001 over 50,000 criminals had been sentenced under the new law, far more than any other state, with almost one-quarter of the inmates facing a minimum of 25 years in prison. The popularity of the three strikes law in California has been pronounced. Unlike Washington, the California law counts nonviolent felonies, such as Burglary and theft, as "strike" offenses. The state of California followed, in 1994, by enacting a three strikes law that mandates a sentence of 25 years to life for a third felony conviction. Anyone convicted of three separate violent felonies must be sentenced to life in prison with no chance for Parole. The state of Washington passed the first three strikes law in 1993. Supreme Court has upheld three strikes laws and has rejected the argument that they amount to Cruel and Unusual Punishment.
However, the laws have their critics, who charge that sentences are often disproportionate to the crimes committed and that incarceration of three strikes inmates for 25 years to life would drive up correctional costs. The belief behind the laws was that getting career criminals off the streets was good public policy. By 2003 over half the states and the federal government had enacted three strikes laws. These statutes came to be known as "three strikes laws," because they were invoked when offenders committed their third offense. Criminal statutes that mandate increased sentences for repeat offenders, usually after three serious crimes.īeginning in the early 1990s, states began to enact mandatory sentencing laws for repeat criminal offenders.
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