Seventeen years after California’s “three strikes” law was sold to the public as a way to keep rapists, child molesters and murderers behind bars, some criminal justice experts are pushing for an overhaul of the sentencing mandate they say is long overdue. They say the law has driven up incarceration costs by billions, contributed to California’s prison crowding and resulted in harsh sentences that did not fit the crimes or circumstances. To these critics, 42-year-old Shane Taylor represents everything that is wrong with three strikes. At age 27, Taylor was drinking beer with friends in a car parked at a lookout spot in Tulare County when police pulled up to see if anyone was underage. An officer noticed a small bag poking out of Taylor’s wallet that contained methamphetamine, about a tenth of a sugar packet’s worth. San Francisco Chronicle
Source: By Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer >>read more
