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Signed into action under the Bill Clinton Administration, the “Three Strikes Amendment” is part of an early initiative to reduce crime and the number of repetitive criminals in rural and urban areas during the early years of the 1990s. As a result, the ratification directly influenced the increase of 60 capital punishment offenses, the construction of additional prisons, the employment of 100,000 national police, and the placement of further prevention of crime efforts. (Clinton.61.9.95).
In an implementation, “The Three Strikes law” heightened the number of prison sentences of individuals indicted as a result of felonies and those who were or have been convicted of a prior violent or serious felony by a great deal. The law also limited the capability of these offenders to acquire a punishment other than a minimum prison sentence; Violent and serious felonies are specifically listed in subjective state law which encompasses, but is not limited to violent offenses including incidents of homicide, breaking in and entering a home with the use of a deadly or dangerous weapon, and sexual offenses; Crimes considered as serious offenses include the same offenses defined as violent offenses, but they also contain other crimes such as burglary of a residence and assault with the intent to carry out a robbery or rape. (Clinton.61.9.95).
“The Three Strikes and You’re Out Law” negatively affected minority communities from the 1990’s-2005. The purpose was to get tough on repeat or habitual offenders, which prompted lengthy prison sentences required on the third felony conviction of an offender, however, the major effect of the law was a substantial increase in the incarceration of minorities.
Of the 50 states composing the United States, California was one of the first states to pass a three-strikes law. Despite the minority representation, the incarceration rate was thirteen times higher than for Caucasians.
In Georgia, 98 percent of offenders serving life sentences under their law were African Americans who were criminalized more often and had an increased chance of stop and frisk. Based upon the foundation of social psychology, Schemas, and Stereotypes recognize that many people in the United States have a stereotype about people of color that involves their aggressiveness and the potential for offenses.
In mock trial research involving college students, students playing jurors were more likely to “find the defendant guilty of a crime if his name was Carlos Ramirez rather than Robert Johnson.” In 2001, African American males accounted for approximately 31 percent of the population in California prisons while they only constituted about 3.5 percent of the general population within the state. Although several public officials say that racial profiling should not exist, unofficially, likely subconsciously, it appeared to be a strong undercurrent that permitted it to occur and flourish in a society that vowed to do the latter. (Kieso.2005). By the end of 2001, 43 percent of those held on death row in the U.S. were African American despite African Americans making up only about 12 percent of the general population. (Kieso.2005) In 2002, African Americans made up more than 80% of those condemned under the legislature of the national narcotic laws and served considerably more time in prison for drug offenses than did their Caucasian counterparts and those accused of the same crime, despite the figures that enumerate more than 2/3 of narcotics users in the U.S. are Caucasian or Hispanic. (NAACP.2002).
According to a 2005 publication, “an estimated 28 percent of African American males will enter a state or federal prison during their entire lifetime, compared to 16 percent of Hispanic males and 4.4 percent of Caucasian males.” In addition to racial profiling, the Three Strikes Law only furthered the penalties against those convicted of charges, the majority drug-related and non-violent in response to under-developed or impoverished Urbanized communities.44 percent of all inmate strikers were convicted of a serious or violent current offense, while 56 percent were convicted of nonserious or nonviolent offenses. (LAO.2005), An opposing view to that of the Clinton Administration upon implementing the legislation into action for ratification within the states.
In contrast, as crime increasingly became a worry among Congressional officials and U.S. Citizens alike due to previous crime rates in correlation with the previous 1980s war on drugs, the Clinton administration recognized the pass of a tougher crime bill with longer sentences, three strikes and you’re out as imperative along which gave the initial impression to prevent crime from occurring at such alarming rates. (Clinton.61.9.95). Aside from Executive reasoning, on a state level in areas such as California, voters approved the Three Strikes Law in 1994 after the murder of Polly Klaas, a 12-year-old by an ex-convict. The killer had been released from prison after serving eight years of a 16-year sentence for a series of armed robberies. Previously, he served six years in prison after he attempted rape, brutally assaulted a woman in the course of a burglary, and tried to kidnap another woman at gunpoint. (Boyarsky.2011). Under the logic of the circumstances, It feels reasonable to assign a Bill that requires a minimum of 25 years to life after the act of two felonies, however, in its intent to reduce felony crimes through habitual offenders, the policies associated with the Three Strikes Bill begins to create unreasonable neglect in certain cases with too harsh of consequences from non-violent acts such as in the case of Lockyer V. Andrade.
On 5 March 2003, In the conviction case of Lockyer V. Leandro Andrade, Andrade was ruled to serve a double consecutive life in prison sentence, without the possibility of parole for fifty years, for stealing $153 worth of videotapes in two separate incidents. (Chemerinsky.31.1.04). After two previous convictions of petty theft where both of which included the theft of video tapes for a sum amount of $153.54.
Under California law, these incidents would generally be regarded as crimes of petty theft misdemeanors punishable by a fine or a jail sentence of six months or less however because Andrade had at least two prior convictions, albeit for the nonviolent crime of burglary, his two arrests for shoplifting were prosecuted as felony petty theft with a prior. While the sentence under the Three Strikes Law is assured to reduce repetition, as Andrade would not be released from prison, such harsh punishment does not constitute reducing crime as the Bill intended. In the span of time, the Three Strikes Bill issued unconstitutional methods of punishment for petty offenses. Offenses may have been reduced with the support of diagnosis and treatment, however, that was often not the case and several minorities under profiling did not have the funds or the want among officials to improve them as “criminals”.
However, perhaps it is to say that minorities were not incarcerated more often or set in longer prison sentences due to racial profiling and criminalization thus it is not the fault of the Clinton Administration and state legislators who passed the law that the effects were negative in response to the Three Strikes Law but rather it is the to their own fault as citizens of the nation who must be held responsible in the courts, and the methods in which that occurs may not have always been the most reasonable. While “accumulative disadvantages” may have influenced the amount of crime in a community the sentencing did not. Although racial discrimination emerges some of the time at some stages of criminal justice processing-such as juvenile justice-there is little evidence that racial disparities result from systemic, overt bias.(Lauritsen & Sampson.1997) Race and ethnic disparities in violent offending and victimization are pronounced and long-standing. African Americans, and to a lesser extent Hispanics, suffer much higher rates of robbery and homicide victimization than Caucasians.
Despite the intent of the Clinton administration and State Legislators, the improvement through the increased incarceration and penalties of repeat offenders, associated with the creation of The Three Strikes Law the law directly negatively affected minority communities through the years the 1990s-2005, due to the policies and faults associated with its creation.
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