three strikes law
Three Strikes Law: For the Good or Bad? ... According to Kathleen Auerhahn, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Temple University, Proposition 184, also known as the “ three strikes and you’re out law “, was passed in November of 1994 (356). Three strikes law is not an asset to the United States because of the increased cost of incarceration and the effect on non-violent offenders. Patrick Marshall, a writer about public policy, states that the three strikes initiative stemmed from the killing of Polly Klass by Richard Allen Davis, a convicted felon (422). ... Under the three strikes legislation, repeat offenders, upon committing their third felony offense, would will be sentenced to a mandatory twenty-five years to life in prison explains Nick DiSpoldo, a free-lance writer and paralegal (10). Auerhahn reports that the State Senate soon after voted the bill into law, with only seven members voting against it. ... This amount of money could put one person through a state college for two or three years. The three strikes law has placed 1,300 people in prison for a third strike offence and 14,000 people in prison on a second strike offence (355). ... Before the three strikes law was enacted, it had been estimated that to keep up with the growing prison population on a national level, that it was necessary to spend 100,000,000 dollars per week on prison systems, explains Auerhahn(360).