Changes in Three Strikes Law Reform California Prison System - IVN.us
According to Ballotpedia, 8,800 inmates in California’s prison system were serving a sentence under the harsh “three-strikes” law as of June 2011. Despite legal challenges, the three-strikes law has remained intact up until this point, marking the significance of the passage of Prop. 36. “Legally speaking, it’s a modest change in the three-strikes law, but politically speaking, it’s a monster change,” says Adam Gelb, director of the Public Safety Performance Project at the Pew Center on the States. With 68.6% of voters in favor of Proposition 36, the ballot measure revises the controversial life sentence aspect of the law, imposing life sentence only when the new felony conviction is “serious or violent.” It also allows offenders previously sentenced under three-strikes and currently serving life sentences to appeal for re-sentencing if their third conviction was not serious.
