Essay On Three Strikes Law

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The three strikes law was implemented in 1993, it was created to act as a strong deterrent as well as to identify and incarcerate habitual offenders by enforcing minimum sentence lengths. The advocates of the law propose that it keeps violent and serious criminals behind bars therefore reducing crime rate. Those opposed suggest it overfills our prisons with aging criminals that eventually hamstring our economy. Overall I believe the three strikes law does more good than harm, and Ill examine articles that go deeper into these matters. According to Eugene H. Methvin, a large portion of violent crime can be prevented with an effective strategy of identifying and incarcerating the individual, keeping him/her off the streets; saving society much…show more content…
" This is a dangerous aspect of the three strikes law, reducing the courts power to consider individual circumstances could lead to unnecessarily long prison sentences for some but on the other hand will ensure hardened criminals don’t get off easy. Overall Shicor concludes that the three strikes law results in inefficient and unpredictable outcomes but I believe those results have more to do with the current construction of our legal…show more content…
Interestingly he claims there have been only 239 statewide third strike convictions in 2006. Down by 1000 from 1996, he suggests that they are nearing the plateau and that “Three strikes has slammed shut what was once a revolving door for career criminals.” This is the most convincing of his arguments and the most encouraging as well. That is probably the best piece of evidence in support of the three strikes law, it shows real improvement and gives hope that it may in fact be an effective

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