alifornia's Proposition 184: Three Strikes and You're Out Last year in California voters approved a controversial ballot Proposition 184, also known as the three strikes and you're outlaw, was passed on November 9, 1994. Under this new legislation repeatoffenders, upon committing their third felony offense, will be sentenced to amandatory twenty-five years to life in prison(California 667). The initiativepassed by a landslide, with 76% of the voters in favor of it. The State Senatesoon after voted the bill into law, with only seven members voting against it.The three strikes initiative stemmed from the killing of Polly Klass by RichardAllen Davis, a convicted felon. The killing outraged the entire state but whatenraged people even more was that Davis had been in and out of prison his wholelife and was still free to kill again. Soon people began calling for laws thatwould put repeat violent offenders behind bars for life. The premise of thenew laws became an easy issue for politicians to back. To oppose suchlegislation seemed to be political suicide, so most politicians backed theinitiative. Although many civil liberties groups opposed such mandatorysentencing measures there was little they could in the face of tremendous voterapproval. Many voters did not realize that this bill could put potentiallyincarcerate people for ludicrous amounts after the commission of a minoroffense. Even more voters did not realize the cost of implementing such a bill. Now that this new legislation has been in effect for a year and thetremendous negative effects it have become obvious we must repeal it.One of the issues that must be considered when imposing mandatorysentencing is the increased cost of incarceration. In the state of Californiait costs $20,000 per year to incarcerate an inmate under normalcircumstances(Cost 1). This amount of money could put one person through astate college for two or three years. According to Beth Carter the ...
