Three Strikes and Youre Out: The Political Sentencing Game

1
Three Strikes and Youre Out The Political
Sentencing Game

• Benekos Merlo
• CJ 365, Summer 2001

2
Politicalization of Crime

• Willie Horton
• Killed an individual while out on furlough
• Polly Klaas
• Parolee who had been released after he had served
  8 of his 16 year sentence
• Incidents like these
• Fuel public fear
• Become hot button political issues

3
Three Strikes Youre Out

• Violent crime control and law enforcement act of
  1994
• Authorizes mandatory life imprisonment for
  persons convicted on two separate occasions of
  two serious violent felonies
• Can also include one violent and one drug offense

4
Effects of Baseball Legislation

• Charge bargaining by prosecutors and judges
• Change felonies to misdemeanors to circumvent the
  law
• Backlog of cases
• Reduction in victim participation
• Increased prison populations

5
and Incarceration

• http//abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/prison
  educaton980707.html
• Felony Disenfranchisement
• www.sentencingproject.com

6
Discussion

• Does legislation like this reduce the crime rate?
• 75 of Americans interviewed believed that this
  legislation would make a significant difference
  in the crime rate.
• Do they just create the illusion of problem
  solving.