From property taxes in the 1970s to immigration in the 1990s and the gig economy more recently, ballot initiative trends often begin in California. The state's Three Strikes law was no exception.
Enacted in California in 1994, with similar initiatives implemented in 22 other states that same year, Three Strikes was seen as necessary to ensure public safety and prevent violent crime. Since its inception, however, many criminal justice experts have debated whether the price tag of incarceration has been worth the taxpayer’s money—or if it’s preventing crime at all.
In the years since the Three Strikes propositions have entered their way into the criminal justice system, many reforms and repeals have been established to mitigate the unintended consequences that the initiative and its nuances have since revealed. Jenna talks to those impacted by the Three Strikes Law and the advocates who are fighting against it, and breaks down just how much work, and money, goes into fueling, and fighting, such a powerful ballot initiative.
Learn more about the podcast at thepeopledecide.show and follow us on Twitter @PeopleDecidePod.
Resources
Three Strikes Project at Stanford Law School
Repeal, Reinute, Reinvest California - Zakiya Prince's organization
State of Resistance by Manuel Pastor
Top of Mind: Is government transparency essential in a democracy?
Local News Matters: Public policy as a tool to support local news
Taking a civic leap of faith
From news deserts to civic media
Winning the democracy lottery
Libraries as civic spaces
Putting money and power in the people's hands
Peeling back the curtain on local government
Season 2 coming soon!
Equal rights, not special rights: A follow up
Introducing: Democracy Decoded
Ballot initiatives in 2022 and beyond
For the many or the few?
The war on the initiative
The invisible third party of reform
A matter of life and death
Bastard Nation finds its voice
Equal rights, not special rights
What happens when the people decide?
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