Strike One On "Three Strikes"

By Kimiko Burton

Burton discusses the ways in which San Francisco has reduced crime without emphasizing the "3 Strikes" law and expresses her support of Leandro Andrade in his challenge of this law on the grounds that it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

The courts have opened the door. It is San Francisco's job to show the way through it. While the rest of the state implemented "three strikes" and began putting shoplifters in prison for life, we instead emphasized rehabilitation and treatment. According to a report by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, San Francisco experienced a larger decline in reported crime than nearly any other city in the country. In short, our policy worked.

The current legal challenge comes from an appellate court ruling that a 50-year prison sentence handed out to a man for stealing videotapes was cruel and unusual punishment. That man, Leandro Andrade, was a heroin addict stealing to feed his addiction. Andrade joined a long list of Californian's spending their lives in jail for relatively minor and non-violent crimes because of this state's three strikes law.

As San Francisco Public Defender, I join my colleagues in cheering and supporting this decision and its rationale. It is an argument we have been making for many years and a decision that is long overdue.

Not surprisingly, supporters of the three strikes law are outraged. They defend the law by trotting out numbers showing dramatic declines in California's crime rate since the law was enacted.

While the rest of the state began handing down life sentences for shoplifters under the three strikes law, San Francisco has instead emphasized drug treatment, social services, and other rehabilitative alternatives to incarceration. Here, prosecutions under the "three strikes" law are more judiciously selected.

For example, a San Francisco man arrested last year for possession of a small amount of crack cocaine faced 25 years in prison under the "three strikes" law. He had not been in trouble with the law for 15 years, but the arrest for possession was his "third strike."

In nearly any other city in the state, this man would now be spending his life in state prison. But not here. Critics argue that we are less safe because we did not lock this man away for the rest of his life # but these critics are wrong.

During the 1990s, San Francisco's crime rate fell by as much or more than all but one other county in California. From 1994 to 1998, the violent crime rate fell in San Francisco County by 35% # compared to 32% in San Diego and 28% in Sacramento # according to California Department of Justice statistics compiled by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. Only Orange County had a larger drop in the rate of violent crime.

San Francisco is well known for its offbeat social policies, the Golden Gate Bridge and Fisherman's Wharf. It is time we were also known for our innovative and effective criminal justice policies as well. We are not perfect by any stretch, but at the very least we can show the rest of the state the fallacy of the arguments in favor of three strikes.

The three strikes law doesn't reduce crime, it just puts more people in prison. Not only is it cruel and unusual punishment for thousands of non-violent offenders, it hasn't proven to be more effective.

We should be shouting this from the rooftops. As the courts # and the court of public opinion # take a fresh look at the three strikes law, it is up to us to offer alternatives. Earlier this month, a ballot initiative to limit three strikes sentencing to violent offenders was unveiled. With some luck and a lot of grassroots support, it could be on the ballot this November.

We have a window of opportunity. It may not come again for a long time.

As San Francisco Public Defender, I will be filing an amicus brief in support of the defendant in the Andrade case as it heads to the U.S. Supreme Court. The attorneys in my office and I will continue to push for more challenges to three strikes. And I will do my part to take this story to the public.

For Leandro Andrade, and the thousands of others now spending their lives in prison unnecessarily, we must jump at the chance to right a wrong.

Kimiko Burton is San Francisco Public Defender and a member of the Executive Board of the California Public Defenders Association.