Wilson Hails Results of ‘3 Strikes’

Gov. Pete Wilson on Wednesday trumpeted California’s “three strikes” law as a vital tool in reducing crime and--looking toward November’s elections--promoted a proposed bond measure that would ask state voters to approve $2.2 billion for new prisons.

Two years after he signed the “three strikes” legislation, Wilson gathered in Redondo Beach with police, prosecutors, crime victims and other supporters of the law to release a state report confirming that it has resulted in the imprisonment of more than 15,300 repeat felons--1,300 on third convictions, the rest for “second strike” felonies.

The nine-page report, prepared by the California Department of Corrections and the Office of Planning and Research, also suggests that the law has led more parolees to leave California than to come here from other states. Last year, it says, the number of parolees seeking to come from other states totaled 1,378, down from 1994’s 1,789. At the same time, the report says, the number of California parolees placed in other states jumped to 2,682, a rise of more than 10% from 1994.

But most of the report, like Wilson’s appearance, focused on anecdotal information to drive home his contention that the law is not only working but needs voters’ support to ensure that more prisons are built for California inmates. The proposed prison bond measure, which must be approved by the Legislature before going to voters, would add six facilities to the 15 that officials say they will need by 2000 to house a prison population growing by 15,000 inmates a year. The state now has 137,000 inmates in 32 prisons.

“We can’t really call ourselves a truly free people or a civilized society if we allow decent people to live in fear of crime. Sadly, too many do,” Wilson told an audience of more than 100 people, including the families of crime victims.

Arguing that the “three strikes” law has helped lower California’s crime rate, Wilson said: “Criminals do seem to be getting the message.” But critics of the law, Wilson said, have not.

“They claim that the punishment is not always justified. That we don’t have the space to house the extra felons to keep them as long as ‘three strikes’ requires. That we don’t have the money to build the extra prison space that is required. They fail to see that the ‘three strikers’ are simply time bombs waiting to go off,” the governor said.

In San Francisco, however, a group opposed to “three strikes” released a report--based on the state’s own figures since the law was enacted--showing more imprisonment in California for possession of marijuana than for murder, rape and kidnapping combined. The 192 “second strike” and “third strike” imprisonments for marijuana compared with 40 for murder, 25 for rape and 24 for kidnapping, said the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice.

The governor’s South Bay appearance was choreographed not only to showcase local supporters of the bill, but to recall high-profile crimes, some of them ghastly, some of them symbolic.

Wilson ticked off a list of local crimes that have shocked residents: the December 1993 shooting death of Manhattan Beach Police Officer Martin Ganz; the October 1995 stabbing death of Christopher Dwayne Barreto near the Manhattan Beach Pier; the November 1995 murder of Hermosa Beach model Linda Sobek; and the December strangulation of Madolyn Smink, a Redondo Beach woman whose body was discovered in the trunk of her car four days after her husband said she disappeared on a trip to a mall.

None of those are “three strikes” cases, but Wilson did refer to a Redondo Beach crime: the March 1995 sentence of 25 years to life for Jerry Dewayne Williams, a robber and car thief who stole a slice of pizza from several children.