Yes on 66 | Fix Three Strikes

Prop 66 Text

Protects Children

RESTORES 3 STRIKES TO ITS ORIGINAL INTENT:

LIFE SENTENCES FOR VIOLENT, REPEAT OFFENDERS

	California is the only state with three-strikes language that doesn’t require a third felony conviction be violent or serious to trigger the harshest sentence.

	More third-strikers are in jail for drug possession than for second-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon and rape combined.

	Fifty-seven percent of third-strikers have been sentenced for a non-violent offense and 64.5 percent of second- and third-strikers combined were serving time for non-violent offenses. Justice Policy Institute study, March, 2004

IMPOSES A NEW 1 STRIKE SENTENCE FOR CHILD MOLESTERS

	Prop. 66 will protect our children by stopping child molesters with a “1-strike” sentence. Requiring 25 years to life for molesting young children.

	Thousands of Californians are serving life sentences for nonviolent, petty and drug offenses.

HOPE FOR THOUSANDS OF CALIFORNIA CHILDREN WHOSE FATHERS AND MOTHERS HAVE BEEN “BURIED ALIVE”

An estimated 46,700 children have parents serving second- or third-strike terms.

“A particularly tragic effect of California’s current three strikes law is the injury done to the more than 30,000 children of non-violent offenders. On average these kids will spend nearly six more years without their incarcerated parents than they would have before the law was enacted.”

LaDoris Cordell, retired Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge; Vice Provost, Stanford University, Co-author, “Life in Prison for Shoplifting Doesn’t Make Sense,” San Jose Mercury, March 18, 2004

SAVES BILLIONS IN STATE GENERAL FUND MONIES TO EASE THE SQUEEZE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND CHILDREN’S WELFARE

	Three Strikes has wasted billions of dollars to incarcerate nonviolent petty criminals for life sentences. Prop. 66 will stop the waste of taxpayers’ money.

	Billions of dollars have been cut from education, health and children’s welfare programs.

	Prop. 66 will ease the squeeze on California’s children.

THREE STRIKES AS USED HAS NOT MADE A DIFFERENCE IN DETERRING CRIME

	San Francisco County used the law the least and had the greatest reduction in its violent crime rate; it experienced a greater reduction in the homicide rate than three of the five counties that used it the most.

	San Francisco County used the law the least and had the greatest reduction in its violent crime rate; it experienced a greater reduction in the homicide rate than three of the five counties that used it the most.

	San Francisco County used the law the least and had the greatest reduction in its violent crime rate; it experienced a greater reduction in the homicide rate than three of the five counties that used it the most.

	Alameda County, which used the law the second least, had a greater reduction in violent crime second only to San Francisco. Indeed, the six counties that used the law the least had a greater reduction in the homicide rate, crime rate and violent-crime rate than the six that used it the most. Justice Policy Institute study, March 2004

“Is this what the voters intended? The costly incarceration of mostly non-violent offenders – disproportionately African-American and Latino – with no demonstrable reduction in crime? The law needs serious reconsideration.” Brenda Payton, Oakland Tribune, March 2004

Give thousands of kids back their fathers and mothers!

Slam the door on child molesters, not a father who shoplifts Disney videos. (True story!)

Yes on Prop. 66