Three Strikes Law in South Florida Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Three Strikes Law in South Florida - Essay Example In the beginning of 1993, the federal government adopted a new approach in serving justice to repeat offenders. Twenty-three states adopted the three-strike law including South Florida. The version of the three-strike law varied from state to state, but the law generally reduced the judicial discretion through the mandating severe penalties for third felony convictions. The three-strike law had a limited impact in most states including South Florida on the federal system. This is evident from the fact that the number of convicted felons under the three-strike law was very little. The number of convicted felons under the three-strike law over fifteen states ranged between one and six people. Therefore, the effectiveness of the three-strike law was in question especially in south Florida. The lack of effectives of the three strike laws in South Florida was due to the poorly structured government drafted laws. This resulted in pressures to eliminate the three strike laws (Domanick, 2004). The three-strike laws in South Florida were expensive to implement. This is evident from the additional costs incurred for pre-conviction jail time. There are also more costs incurred in case processing and trials whereby defendants facing three strikes choose the option of going to trial as opposed to pleading guilty. There was also an increase in the number of the number of prison convictions on third and second counts. This resulted in overcrowding of prisons and hence more expenses incurred from prison building costs. Increased length of prison sentences has led to long-term costs. This is evident from the fact that the costs incurred from the incarceration of older prisoners are three times that of healthy younger inmates. The three-strike law did not have the expected effect on crime in South Florida and other states, in the United States. This is because of the reason that that repeat felons in South Florida were already faced with life sentences before sentencing under the th ree-strike law. The impact of the three strike laws was to imprison less serious offenders whereby they were subjected to longer sentences for less serious offences. The law also affected less serious offenders such that it resulted in the longer sentences being served to offenders, as they are aging from their crime prone years (Three strikes law: sentencing: statute, 2007). The three-strike law had uneven and unintended impacts in South Florida. One of the impacts is witnessed from the long-term prison sentencing of less serious crimes. This effect was witnessed throughout the states implementing the three-strike law. The application of the three strike law had and uneven implementation depending on the state jurisdictions. Hence, this has resulted in bargaining and pleas from defendants, which come off as a hindrance to justice. This fact alone has resulted in the pressure to eliminate the three-strike law in South Florida. The three-strike law promoted racial disparity. This is evident from the fact that the fact that the impact of the three strike convictions were observed to disproportionately affect the African-Americans. This was observed in the South Florida the number of convicted African-American felons increased with the strikes of convictions. Hence, this comes off as a racial bias in the implementation of justice within the federal system. This therefore resulted in the elimination of the three-strike law in South Florida (Shichor, 1996). The application of the three-strike law had a very insignificant effect on the deterrence of crime in South Florida. This is due to the reason that the threat of punishment under the three-s