as done so far. Ithas placed many more non-violent offenders in prison than violent offenders.The legislation stands to cost the state millions of dollars per year toincarcerate people of longer prison terms. Clearly the three-strikes law hasnot served its intended purpose it must be repealed.An analysis of Department of Corrections data by the Center on Juvenile andCriminal Justice in San Francisco, CA, in Nov, 1995 indicates that since theenactment of California's "Three Strikes" law two years ago, 192 have "struckout" for marijuana possession, compared to 40 for murder, 25 for rape, and 24for kidnapping. I have a strong proposition for the California Legislature...andthat is a strict and logical reform to the present Criminal Justice System in California. "The California Legislature is to be commended for its stance oncrime. Not for their "get tough" policies such as the "Three Strikes" law butfor their enactment of a little known section of the Penal Code entitled the"Community Based Punishment Act of 1994." (Senator Quentin Kopp, Time MagazineFeb 14, 1996). By passage of this act, the State of California has acknowledgedthe limitations of incarceration as both punishment and a deterrent to criminalbehavior. The legislature has in fact declared that "California's criminaljustice system is seriously out of balance in its heavy dependence upon prisonfacilities and jails for punishment and its lack of appropriate punishment fornonviolent offenders and substance abusers who could be successfully treated inappropriate, less restrictive programs without any increase in danger to thepublic" In essence, this law proposes a community based system of intermediaterestrictions for non-violent offenders that fall between jail time andtraditional probation such as home detention with electronic monitoring, bootcamps, mandatory community service and victim restitution, day reporting, andothers. Pilot programs are to be developed as a collab...
