The impact of three-strikes legislation on local jails and courts and state corrections has not been as severe as previously projected in either California or Washington. All three-strikes laws examined in this study authorize or mandate longer periods of incarceration for those convicted of violent crimes. All of the three-strikes statutes increased the period of incarceration for violent crime, expanded the number of crimes included in the violent crime category or did both. With the exception of Kansas, all states reviewed in the study had enacted provisions for enhanced penalties for repeat offenders before they passed three-strikes legislation. Generally, a strike offense is a violent felony, but some states add other charges, such as the sale of drugs or other drug-related offenses.
States also differ as to sanctions imposed for accumulated strikes.
The report was prepared from research conducted under a grant from NIJ to John Clark, a Senior Associate at the Pretrial Services Resource Center, James Austin, Ph.D., Executive Vice President of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, and D. Alan Henry, Executive Director of the Pretrial Services Resource Center.