It's another push to reform California's Three Strikes law. A group out of Stanford is trying to get an initiative on the 2012 ballot. It would change the harsh punishments for non-violent third strike offenders. But the local man who helped write the law says it's successful just as it is.
There have been several attempts to amend the three strikes law, but in tough economic times, people may be thinking about the money it's costing to keep "lifers" in prison. Local advocates of Three Strikes say it's cheaper to keep them in than the cost of letting them out.
No one wants the Three Strikes law to remain unchanged more than Fresno's Mike Reynolds. He helped write it after his 18-year-old daughter was gunned down in the Tower District. The law passed two years later in 1994. Now, 17 years later, he says why fix something that isn't broken.
"You don't want to change a program, especially one that's worked as well as Three Strikes has. California's Three Strikes is the envy of every other state in the nation," said Reynolds.
But a group out of Stanford feels it's extreme. The Stanford Three Strikes Project web site states:
"Three Strikes is widely recognized as the harshest sentencing law in the United States. Over 4,000 inmates in California are serving life sentences under the Three Strikes law for non-violent crimes."
The group is taking some cases back to court to get Three Strikes life sentences reversed. The proposed initiative would change the crimes that qualify as strikes, which Reynolds says is frightening.
"Under this new proposal you can assault a police officer with anything, any kind of weapon, including a gun, as long as it's not a machine gun," said Reynolds.
Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims things the current law works as a deterrent, citing decreased crime rates since it passed. She argues the cost of keeping "lifers" in prison is worth it.
"It talks about how there are 4,000 inmates in the state system doing three strikes, that's only .03 percent of the total population in the prisons," said Mims.
For the initiative to move forward, 500,000 signatures have to be collected and it needs approval from the State Attorney General.