Tough Law Striking Out In Most Cases Survey Suggests ‘Three-Strikes’ Laws Not Working

Two years ago, politicians of every stripe were clamoring for “three-strikes-and-you’re-out” laws - a proverbial cure-all that would put bad guys away forever, cut down on crime and make the streets safe again.

But the first national survey of such laws suggest they’re proving to be a dud.

Only nine people have been sentenced at the federal level, where “three strikes” was included in the 1994 crime bill, according to a report being released today by the Campaign for an Effective Crime Policy, a Washington-based coalition of criminal-justice and elected officials. Twenty-four other federal cases are pending.

And the laws simply aren’t being used in many of the 22 states that passed similar laws, which typically impose a life sentence for a third felony conviction.

“We have a serious crime problem in this country,” said Walter Dickey, the University of Wisconsin law professor who wrote the report. “We are sold this as a solution. It gets all kinds of energy and attention, and yet it is relatively ineffectual.”

Only in California has the law been applied broadly, and that has provoked a statewide controversy. There, 15,000 offenders have been sentenced for second or third offenses, raising questions about whether the law is unjust, the study says. Twice as many marijuana possessors have gotten stiff sentences as have murderers, rapists and kidnappers.

Amid political rhetoric, the “three-strikes” laws were passed as a way to tackle repetitive, serious criminal behavior. Sentencing and parole eligibility vary from state to state, with some calling for life without parole. In others, prisoners are eligible for parole after 30 or 40 years.

At the federal level, the long-term impact is expected to be minimal because fewer than 2 percent of violent felonies are resolved in federal courts.

With the glaring exception of California, state third-strike laws have rarely been used. Tennessee, New Mexico, Colorado and North Carolina haven’t used them at all. Wisconsin has applied its law only once. Georgia has had five life sentences, and Indiana has had 10 convictions under its law.

Washington paved the way

In Washington, the first state to pass such a law in 1993, there have been more than 60 convictions, but the state’s corrections director says those criminals would have faced stiff sentences anyway under existing laws.

“This camouflages the real problems,” said Chase Riveland, secretary of Washington’s 12,380-inmate Department of Corrections. “This is almost a placebo. The public thinks something is happening that will make me feel safer. But that keeps us from looking at the real issues, such as dealing with drugs in our society.”

Spokane County Prosecutor Jim Sweetser disagrees. Most Washington prosecutors, he said, are aggressively using the three-strikes option.

Three men have been convicted under the law in Spokane - Larry Stapleton, Gary Quarles and Harold Bingham. Several others facing potential third strikes have trials pending.

“This type of violent criminal tends to harm innocent victims in our community,” Sweetser said. “If the choice is letting those repeat offenders out or protecting the community, I’ll side with community safety every time.”

Prosecutors in some other states have avoided the three-strikes laws because they see little need for them with existing tough sentencing laws, the study concludes. Another reason is that some laws were narrowly written, making it harder to apply them, the report said.

Andrew Sonner, the district attorney in Maryland’s Montgomery County, said his state has barely used the law because most eligible defendants are going to get the maximum time anyway.

“Our crime problem won’t be solved by legislative gadgets like this that have a lot of public appeal, but no research-based foundation,” Sonner said.

85 percent are nonviolent offenders

Dickey was most surprised by the experience in California, which serves as something of a laboratory. There, some 1,300 offenders have been imprisoned on third-strike felonies and more than 14,000 criminals for “second-strike” felonies. California’s law calls for a doubling of the prison sentence for a second felony and a sentence of 25 years to life for a third conviction.

The California law was written broadly to cover 500 felonies, raising questions about sentencing severity for many nonviolent offenders. Some of the felonies include petty theft, attempted assault and burglary. Thus, about 85 percent of all those sentenced under the “three-strikes” laws were involved in nonviolent crimes, the study says. For instance, 192 marijuana possessors have been sentenced for second and third strikes, compared with 40 murderers, 25 rapists and 24 kidnappers.

Steve Telliano, press secretary for California Attorney General Dan Lungren, defended the law, saying the state’s crime rate has dropped dramatically since its passage in March 1994.

“There is no reason to change California laws to make them similar to other states when the results we are seeing in California are far greater,” he said. But others argue that the crime rate declined substantially even before the law was passed.

The law also is having a huge effect on California’s court backlog because many defendants are choosing to go to trial in the face of such severe sentences. Second- and third-strike cases account for only 3 percent of the filings in Los Angeles courts, but make up 24 percent of the jury trials, an extremely high figure.

The report says the California law also has created a need to build 15 new prisons in the next five years, costing $4.5 billion. California’s prison population is expected to grow by 70 percent by 1999, resulting in a 256 percent capacity rate, meaning that without new prisons, three inmates will be housed in space for one.

“People thought they could wave a magic wand and it would make all the problems go away,” said Gil Kline, a spokesman for the Campaign for An Effective Crime Policy. “But this deflects our energy and attention from thinking about violence in more complete ways.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: ‘Three-strikes’ states Twenty-two states have “three-strike” laws. Here are the states, the year the law was enacted, and the results, according to information provided by the states to the Campaign for an Effective Crime Policy. Arkansas, 1995 - few or no convictions. California, 1994 - 1,300 third-strike convictions; more than 14,000 for second strikes. Colorado, 1994 - 0. Connecticut, 1994 - few or no convictions. Florida, 1995 - 2 prosecutions. Georgia, 1994 - 5 life sentences. Indiana, 1994 - 10 convictions. Louisiana, 1994 - few or no convictions. Maryland, 1994 - seldom. Montana, 1995 - law takes effect in 1997. Nevada, 1995 - few or no convictions. New Jersey, 1995 - 0. New Mexico, 1994 - 0. North Carolina, 1994 - 0. Pennsylvania, 1995 - 0. South Carolina, 1995 - 2 sentences. Tennessee, 1994 - 0. Utah, 1995 - Few or no convictions. Vermont, 1995 - Few or no convictions Virginia, 1994 - Few or no convictions. Wisconsin, 1994 - 1. Washington, 1993 - 63. Note: For states with “few or no convictions,” pending prosecutions may not have been recorded or officials did not have access to a complete database of cases. - Knight-Ridder

The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Angie Cannon Knight-Ridder Staff writer Tom Sowa contributed to this report.