Three Strikes, You're in for Life
John Jennings
Digital Print, 2006
Champaign, IL
24849

The media, prison guard unions, law enforcement officials, and politicians looking to get elected by looking “tough on crime” have instilled fear and outrage in the public over violent crimes, despite the fact that crime has been declining since the 1970s. This political climate of fear has led to laws requiring mandatory sentencing. As part of this trend, California voters passed Proposition 184 in 1994, one of the strictest criminal punishments in U.S. history. Sold to the voters with the slogan “three strikes and you’re out,” Proposition 184 prescribed that people with two violent felonies would get life sentences for any third felony conviction—even in cases where the third conviction is as minor as stealing a t-shirt, writing a bad check or small possession of drugs. Since 1996 Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes has built a state wide movement of strikers, families and their allies to challenge the law and bring thousands of people home who are serving life sentences for nonviolent third strikes.

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