"[A] major study of this unique legislation.... [It] is, quite simply, required reading for anyone interested in crime policy in California, the United States in general, or any modern democratic nation....In an area drenched with emotionalism, the authors have produced a study that is analytically incisive in setting up its categories, conscientious in collecting its data, and judicious in reaching its conclusions. It is also highly readable."--Law andPolitics Book Review "This book is an exemplar of criminology, the science of law-making, law-breaking, and law-enforcing. [The book] will stand for years as both a substantive and methodologicallandmark."--Lawrence W. Sherman, Director, Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, University of Pennsylvania "This would be a better society, with more just and humane policies, if people in authority read and paid attention to this brilliant, closely-reasoned and intensely significant book."--Lawrence Friedman, Stanford Law School

In the mid-1990s, policymakers in more than half the states and the federal government responded to escalating crime rates and a series of sensationalized crimes by passing laws that imposed lifetime sentences on repeat offenders. Since then, the Three Strikes and You're Out movement, which embodies the overall get tough with crime approach to criminal sentencing, has generated much controversy. Critics argue that Three Strike laws are disproportionate, costly, and inefficient. Supporters, however, argue that the laws are effective, necessary, and just. Despite the controversy, Three Strike laws are still popular more than a decade after their implementation. Attempts to reduce the scope and/or severity of Three Strike policies have failed and the laws continue to affect thousands of offenders each year. Setting the record straight, Walsh provides a clear, comprehensive overview of the movement and its consequences. Do Three Strikes laws really prevent crime? Do they cost less than releasing repeat offenders time and time again? Are they evenly and fairly applied? These questions and more are answered in these pages through a careful analysis of the costs, benefits, and results of Three Strikes legislation. Walsh analyzes the historical development of the Three Strikes movement in the context of get tough sentencing reforms and provides detail about the various Three Strikes statutes adopted across the nation, while offering an in-depth exmamination of the controversies they have produced. Amid efforts to repeal or revise such statutes, the laws still stand, and this book sheds light on the history of, rationale for, and results of one of the most controversial criminal justice movements of our time.

The California Three Strikes law was passed in 1994 as a wave of "strike" laws swept the United States. California's law was unique, however, because people convicted of possession of a small amount of narcotics or who committed petty crimes like shoplifting were receiving life sentences. Kieso studies prosecutorial discretion, judicial discretion, jury discretion with a focus on the inconsistencies in California's usage of its Three Strikes law. Contrary to the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 decision, Ewing v. California, which upheld the law and to public perception, Kieso demonstrates that many unjust cases result from flaws in California's political system.

In this book, Jennifer E. Walsh provides a clear and comprehensive view of Three Strikes laws and their consequences. She sheds light on the history of, the rationale for, and the results of a highly controversial sentencing policy in the field of criminal justice.

From an award-winning journalist comes an investigative look, through the stories of people on both sides of the law, at the development and impact of the three strikes legislation in California.