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examples of mandatory sentencing. In California, where they are most commonly used, the laws have resulted in clogging the courts, lowering rates of plea bargaining, and causing desperate offenders to violently resist arrest . As with all laws, there are the pros and cons that consequently follow them. One study has showed that the law did not have a large impact on the reduction in rates of serious crimes or petty theft. Research in Los Angeles has shown that the impact of the law hits African Americans the hardest. According to statistics, during the first six months 57% of those charged under the new law were African American, which happened to be 17 times the rate of Whites. One California study reported that 84% of a sample of three-strike offenders ?had been convicted at least once for a violent crime,? as well as and average of five felonies a piece. This was revealed after it was argued that these laws unfairly affect nonviolent offenders. The three-strikes law is like a double-edges sword in that while it is successful at obtaining its objectives, it also has a flipside. Does the three-strikes law really make a difference, and affect the crime rate? The following, according to Clear are the pros and cons regarding the laws in California. The law does incapacitate habitual offenders (its main objective), but there is no hard evidence that the law has had a deterrent effect on crime commission. The California law targets repeat felons but captures mostly nonviolent offenders. Three strike defendants decline plea bargains and crowd jails, which in turn leads to the early release of other offenders. Prison problems are exacerbated by demand for space, high costs of building and staffing, safety and health concerns for inmates and employees, and an escalation of geriatric inmate health care costs. Through the experience of other mandatory sentencing laws and the impact expected by them, it served as a model for the three strikes law. In 1973, when New York imposed tough mandatory sentences for drug dealers, prosecutors had to reduce charges to get guilty please because the sentences raised the stakes for the defendant so high .

Forty states employ some version of a truth-in sentencing law, and since 1996 the Department of Justice has provided more than $1.3 billion in the incentives grants programs. This has stirred up so much attention that the federal government has allocated most of the $10 billion for prison construction only to those states that adopt truth-in sentencing . Critics of Truth In Sentencing say the measure strains the already overcrowded state prison system. Others say the bill?s costs, with one estimate into the hundreds of millions, were not scrutinized enough by lawmakers. ?When it comes to this, we can buy a pig in a poke with no consideration of the fiscal effect because we want to be crime-fighters,? said Rep. Marlin Schneider, D-Wisconsin Rapids. Majority of the people, support the bill and say that its costs are worth the money. ?I think that this bill is not about costs. I think this is about saving money by locking up criminals,? Rep. Tom Sykora, R-Chippewa Falls. Gov. Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin signed the bill and said that the new law will provide more peace of mind for the public and assure crime victims that assailants will not be back on the streets quickly. ?When you get 10 years in prison, you stay in prison 10 years. Not one day less,? he said. The law also requires the state to review its criminal code and determine whether to revise penalties for crimes. One of the major is that juries in aggravated murder cases now have a fourth option to consider in sentencing, to send a convicted killer to prison for life. That choice joins the other three options in capital cases: life with 30 full years served, life with 20 full years, and death. When asked if the new life-without-parole option result in fewer death sentences, David Diroll, executive director of the criminal sentencing commission said, ?Perhaps, it?s a tough call?. While the new law lengthens prison terms, it also accents the importance of programs designed to reduce the recidivism rate.

When it comes to developing new laws that potentially do so much good and obtain all their objectives, the question of funding inevitably arises. It seems unlikely that Californians will put up with drastic reduction in governmental services, but increased taxes are decidedly unpopular. Clearly, something?s got to give. It may be the three-strike law itself. Criminal justice officials may simply not have the money to fully implement it. If that?s the case, lesser effective alternatives might need to be employed. Whatever the case may be three strikes and truth in sentencing legislation are deterrent strategies that could potentially be very successful in reducing violent crime in our communities.

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