Three-Strike Law

Three-Strike Law

Introduction

This assignment is focused on describing the way three-strike sentencing is applied to the federal and state government.

Discussion

In the last few years, lawmakers at both Federal and State levels have passed the legislation to increase the penalties for the criminal offenses especially the violent crimes. These actions were a response to the public concerns regarding crime and the belief that they have that there are many serious offenders who are released from the prison. There are many laws which have come under the main label of “three strikes and you're out”. The main purpose of these laws is quite simple; the offenders who are convicted repeatedly of the serious offenses need to be removed from society for long period of time. For many years most of the States had different provisions in their law which insisted of longer sentencing for the repeat offenders. However, between 1993 and 1995, Federal Government along with twenty four states enacted new laws through the use of three strikes.

California and Washington were the first States to implement the law of three-strikes. When these laws were debated regarding the effect that they will have on the two States, concerns were raised by the criminal justice system. It was argued that the defendant who will face lengthy mandatory sentences will also demand for trails which will result in slowing the process of cases along with adding to the problems of jail crowding and court delay. The long term issue which was raised was that as more offenders started serving more lengthy terms of incarceration, it will result in prison overcrowding which is already a big problem in most of the States.

National Use of Strikes Law

Washington was the first state to adopt the law in 1993.the federal version of law and thirteen other states adopted the law in 1994 which was followed by 9 more in 1995. The law was passed when the concern of public regarding the crime was very high despite the crime rate decline. The political push for these laws was based on the perception of public the offenders received relatively shorter sentences as compared to the past. In reality the incarceration rate was high and the offenders were serving longer than the average terms. This new law was presented as an important fighting tool for crime and was highlighted as the only method to keep the repeated offenders off the street. Most of the states had the statues which provided for long prison sentences for the criminals who have a violent career.

These new laws were to target the criminals having violent career but they were written with major changes and deviations in parole and sentencing eligibility, the nature of crime qualifying as a strike, the number of strikes needed to invoke the mandatory sentence and the degree of discretion which is permitted in applying and invoking the law. The evaluation of the effect of any law is difficult because of the complex functioning in the system of criminal justice and ...