The three strikes law really does need to be re-evaluated. The most severe cases — murderers, child molesters, rapists, people who torture victims — are a menace to society. These need to be used for the strike-three sentence. Also, to keep our prisons from being hotel rooms with free education, death sentences should be the final decision in court and no appeals should be allowed.
Our prisons would not be overpopulated as they are now. We should go back to the swift kind of punishment. Then we all wouldn't be paying so much money on prisoners but could help our own poor and homeless people in this wealthy country.
Unfortunate people like the woman who wrote the letter "Do I deserve life for petty theft?" (Aug. 4, Letters), are prime examples of the problems with the three strikes law. She shouldn't have to be serving a sentence like that. Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Robert Downey Jr. and many other celebrities have done this and worse, and they didn't get a third strike sentence. Why should this young woman?
Start executing right away, when the sentences are made. Then there wouldn't be any crowded prisons.
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CORKY VIRREY
Modesto
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