Amending the Three Strikes Law to violent felonies only

By Donna J. Warren

This unjust law must be changed before another child grows up without a father

Today, Polly's grandfather says supporters of the law "danced a jig" on his granddaughter's grave to get the law passed. In reality, only 5% of the people incarcerated for the rest of their lives under Three Strikes are there for murder and rape. Instead, people who steal videotapes, a slice of pizza, and a bicycle are being locked away, at taxpayer expense, for 50 years to life. The more time our police spend stopping those petty crimes, the more time the courts spend prosecuting those petty crimes, the less time and resources they have to stop rapists and murderers.

Crime has not dropped because of Three Strikes. However, profits for prison construction companies and the prison guards union have increased. We need laws that make sense, not money; laws that do not leave thousands of children fatherless; laws that do not punish people as they try to turn their life around.