
Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Shame of Three Strikes Laws - dmmalam
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/cruel-and-unusual-punishment-the-shame-of-three-strikes-laws-20130327
======
benjohnson
A rational person would stop stealing after the 2nd strike. It's wise to
remove harmful and irrational people from society.

Justice would demand that we expand the law to include white-collar crimes.

~~~
omonra
I am not sure that 3 white collar crimes should be punishable by life
sentence. Why not amend the law to only cover violent crime? For stealing of
socks, maybe just have sentencing guidelines that take into account how many
socks the offender had stolen before.

~~~
brg
One very good change to this policy was mentioned in the article,

 _"Despite the passage in late 2012 of a new state ballot initiative that
prevents California from ever again giving out life sentences to anyone whose
"third strike" is not a serious crime"_

This refers to California Proposition 36. It was passed with 70% approval. It
also allows for resentencing, but I do not know under what conditions.

------
lutterkd
He's not "unlucky". He was punished for a crime. He thought to himself, I'll
just go and take what I want, and fuck everyone else. We don't want people
like that in society. Good riddance.

It's not a serious crime? You're right. That's worse! He's so sociopathic that
he'll break the law even when it's not even worth it to him! He'll take your
property, even when he could pay for it.

~~~
GotAnyMegadeth
I agree, punishments should be inversely proportional to the crime.

