The new study found similar disparity in the application of the “three strikes” law-a disparity it blames on racial bias. By comparison, the rate was about one in 10 for young Latino males and one in 20 for white men. Last month, the center released a study showing that 39% of the state’s African American men in their 20s were imprisoned, in jail or on probation. The same law doubles prison terms for second-time felony offenders, who make up the majority of the estimated 15,839 inmates swelling the state’s prison population. Under the law, aimed at punishing repeat criminals with the harshest of sentences, criminal defendants who have already been convicted of two felonies face the possibility of life in prison if they are convicted of a third. Dan Lungren said the state’s chief prosecutor had not seen the report and would not comment on its conclusions until he does.īut Greg Totten, executive director of the California District Attorneys Assn., criticized the study as being flawed and said the state’s 2,400 prosecuting attorneys consider the law a useful tool in sending away the most violent offenders, who often have long criminal histories even if their “second strike” or “third strike” offenses are not violent. And therefore opens the process to real racial discrimination,” Currie said.Ī spokesman for state Atty. it opens up the process to a lot more discretion in the charging and sentencing. “The fact that our ‘three strikes’ law heavily targets property offenders means. “It can truly be said that ‘three strikes’ is California’s apartheid.”Įlliott Currie, a criminologist and lecturer in legal studies at UC Berkeley, said the study does not resolve the nagging question about the source of racial disparity in the criminal justice system-namely, are people of different ethnic groups, with similar criminal histories, receiving the same punishment for the same crimes?Įven so, Currie said, the study does suggest some disparity in the application of “three strikes” if for no other reason than the state’s own numbers show the vast majority of people sentenced under the law are convicted of nonviolent offenses-where prosecutors have the greatest latitude in deciding whether to try a crime as a felony or misdemeanor. “If one were writing a law to deliberately target blacks, one could scarcely have done it more effectively than ‘three strikes,’ ” said Vincent Schiraldi, executive director of the liberal-leaning center, which is based in San Francisco. A co-author of the new study said there was no scientific basis to conclude that the disparity between blacks and other groups in the application of “three strikes” stems from a significantly higher rate of violent crimes committed by African Americans.
But a recent analysis by the Department of Corrections found that 85% of all inmates incarcerated under the new law were found guilty of nonviolent offenses in their second or third convictions. The “three strikes” study does not include data about the criminal backgrounds of inmates of various racial groups or the nature of their crimes.
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