PD Editorial: Curbing the high cost of three strikes

Published: Monday, July 11, 2011 at 3:00 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, July 8, 2011 at 1:13 p.m.

About one in every four California inmates is serving a sentence under the nation's most stringent repeat-offender law.

California is the only state that metes out life sentences for writing a bad check, trying to pry open the door of a church food pantry, stealing a jack from a tow truck and other nonviolent offenses that might not otherwise result in any jail time. In some three-strikes cases, inmates committed all their offenses on a single day. While these tend to be more serious crimes, that hardly fits the career-criminal profile offered as justification for the law.

It's little wonder that California is under a federal court order, affirmed by a decidedly conservative U.S. Supreme Court, to release thousands of inmates to relieve crowding in state prisons.

The first step will be moving some offenders to county jails. That will happen this fall. Another step should be revising three strikes to ensure that life sentences are meted out only for serious and violent felonies.

Lawyers at Stanford University's Three Strikes Project are drafting such an initiative, with an eye on the 2012 ballot.

And they may have allies from the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the politically powerful prison guards union that fought past efforts to better target the three strikes law, including a ballot initiative in 2004. “We'd be open to reasonable modifications,” Jevaughn Baker, a union spokesman, told the San Jose Mercury News. “We have to have an efficient system.”

Under three strikes, the penalty doubles for a second conviction for an offense designated as serious or violent, and a sentence of 25-years-to-life is imposed for any subsequent felony, no matter how minor. Almost 9,000 inmates are serving life sentences on three-strikes convictions, and 32,000 others are two-strikers.

In a state that spends $50,000 per inmate annually — up from $20,000 when three strikes was adopted — the cost of enhanced sentences is huge. In 2009, state auditors estimated that taxpayers would spend an extra $19.2 billion over the duration of incarceration for the three-strikes inmates then in custody.

The law's history is closely entwined with Sonoma County. Before the 1993 kidnapping and murder of Polly Klaas, a 12-year-old Petaluma girl, by a parolee with a lengthy criminal record, three strikes legislation was bogged down in Sacramento, and an initiative campaign wasn't making much progress either. Both passed with a boost from Marc Klaas, the slain girl's father, who later became an outspoken opponent of three strikes.

Another Sonoma County case resulted in a state Supreme Court decision in 1996 that gave trial judges discretion, previously enjoyed only by prosecutors, to disregard prior convictions and reduce sentences in the interests of justice.

The exponential costs of three strikes were one reason that it was going nowhere before the Polly Klaas case. As the costs have mounted, political leaders have ducked for cover, afraid of being labeled as soft on crime.

Now, after years of state budget deficits and facing court orders to address prison crowding, voters should pass a new initiative to restrict three strikes to career criminals and the most serious crimes.

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Join "Moms United" and Students For Sensible Drug Policy

On June 18th  "Moms United To End The War On Drugs" says NO MORE DRUG WAR

COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS JUNE 18TH EVENT IS FREE!

SAVE THE DATE! June17/18 are national days of action protesting the failed War on Drugs, which is really a war on people... 

SPEAKERS, MUSIC, ART, POETRY, FOOD, CANDLELIGHT VIGIL REMEMBERING THOSE IMPACTED BY THE WAR ON DRUGS and more... click banner for info

from A New PATH Los Angeles & "Moms United to End the War on Drugs"

"Community Solutions" to the failed WAR ON DRUGS!

- A community response to the 40-year War on Drugs and Mass Incarceration - Get educated, empowered and entertained!

Saturday, June 18 · 1:00pm -  midnight

Chuco's Justice Center

1137 East Redondo Boulevard

Inglewood, California

A New PATH /Los Angeles is co-sponsoring with SSDP an all day festival SATURDAY JUNE 18TH; collaborating with 27 other drug war activist and advocacy groups to present 2 panels of speakers, poetry readings, candlelight vigil – ending the evening with live music till midnight!

About A New PATH (Parents for Addiction... Healing and Treatment) -

A New PATH works to reduce the stigma associated with addictive illness through education and compassionate support, and to advocate for therapeutic rather than punitive drug policies. We are anon-profit advocacy organization of parents, concerned citizens, individuals in recovery, healthcare professionals and community leaders working together to educate the public, media and decision makers about the true nature of the disease of addiction, reduce the harms of current drug laws and expand access to treatment services.

We advocate ending discriminatory drug policies that serve as roadblocks to recovery. We are bringing focus to our country's failed drug policies and the havoc they have wreaked on our families in our current campaign "Moms United to End the War on Drugs." We are leading a growing national movement dedicated to stopping the violence, mass incarceration and overdose deaths that are the result of current punitive and discriminatory drug policies. We started our movement in 2000 with our executive director Gretchen Bergman chairing the groundbreaking "Treatment instead of Incarceration" Prop 36 campaign.

Please email me if you need more information,
Julia Negron
Regional Director
A New PATH - Los Angeles
anewpathla@gmail.com

Recovery Defined – A Unified Working Definition and Set of Principles

Friday, May 20th, 2011

In August 2010, leaders in the behavioral health field, including people in recovery from mental health and addiction problems and SAMHSA met to explore the development of a common, unified definition of recovery. Prior to this conversation it was very apparent as to the need of a common definition. In fact, SAMHSA had separate definitions for recovery from mental and substance use conditions. These different definitions, along with other government agency definitions, complicate the discussion as we work to expand health insurance coverage for treatment and recovery support services.

After many conversations and hard work with our partners in the field, a working unified definition and set of principles for recovery has been developed. The development of a standard, unified working definition of recovery will help assure access to recovery-oriented services for those who need it, as well as reimbursement to providers.

Additionally, SAMHSA recognizes the importance of measuring the outcomes and quality of behavioral health services. As a result, SAMHSA is working to develop a set of measures to help assess a person’s recovery with an emphasis on developing indicators that assess quality of life.
Below you will find the working definition recovery and guiding principles.

Working Definition of Recovery
Recovery is a process of change whereby individuals work to improve their own health and wellness and to live a meaningful life in a community of their choice while striving to achieve their full potential.

Principles of Recovery

• Person-driven;
• Occurs via many pathways;
• Is holistic;
• Is supported by peers;
• Is supported through relationships;
• Is culturally-based and influenced;
• Is supported by addressing trauma;
• Involves individual, family, and community strengths and responsibility;
• Is based on respect; and
• Emerges from hope.

Furthermore SAMHSA’s Recovery Support Initiative identifies four major domains that support recovery:

• Health: overcoming or managing one’s disease(s) as well as living in a physically and emotionally healthy way;
• Home: a stable and safe place to live that supports recovery;
• Purpose: meaningful daily activities, such as a job, school, volunteerism, family caretaking, or creative endeavors, and the independence, income and resources to participate in society; and
• Community: relationships and social networks that provide support, friendship, love, and hope.

There is no set time requirement for recovery as it is recognized that this is an individualized process whereby each person’s journey of recovery is unique and whereby each person in recovery chooses supports, ranging from clinical treatment to peer services that facilitate recovery.

SAMHSA expects additional comments from the field as this definition evolves, and we continue to work together to help assure recovery services are being provided, reimbursed and measured in a consistent way. Check out SAMHSA’s Recovery Support Initiative for more information on recovery.
http://blog.samhsa.gov/2011/05/20/recovery-defined-a-unified-working-definition-and-set-of-principles/#comments%20

JOIN A New PATH in San Diego June 17th to Rally against the failure of the War on Drugs!