Proposition 184 in California
Last year in California voters approved a controversial ballot
initiative. Proposition 184, also known as the three strikes and you're out
law, was passed on November 9, 1994. Under this new legislation repeat
offenders, upon committing their third felony offense, will be sentenced to a
mandatory twenty-five years to life in prison(California 667). The initiative
passed by a landslide, with 76% of the voters in favor of it. The State Senate
soon after voted the bill into law, with only seven members voting against it.
The three strikes initiative stemmed from the killing of Polly Klass by Richard
Allen Davis, a convicted felon. The killing outraged the entire state but what
enraged people even more was that Davis had been in and out of prison his whole
life and was still free to kill again. Soon people began calling for laws that
would put repeat violent offenders behind bars for life. The premise of the
new laws became an easy issue for politicians to back. To oppose such
legislation seemed to be political suicide, so most politicians backed the
initiative. Although many civil liberties groups opposed such mandatory
sentencing measures there was little they could in the face of tremendous voter
approval. Many voters did not realize that this bill could put potentially
incarcerate people for ludicrous amounts after the commission of a minor
offense. Even more voters did not realize the cost of implementing such a bill.
Now that this new legislation has been in effect for a year and the
tremendous negative effects it have become obvious we must repeal it.
One of the issues that must be considered when imposing mandatory
sentencing is the increased cost of incarceration. In the state of California
it costs $20,000 per year to incarcerate an inmate under normal
circumstances(Cost 1). This amount of money could put one person through a
state college for two or three years. According to Beth Carter the three
strikes law has placed 1,300 people in prison for a third strike offense and
14,000 people in prison on a second strike offense(1). The current recidivism
rate in California is 70%(2), which means that out of those 14,000 people that
almost 10,000 will be back in prison for a third strike. To imprison those
1,300 third strike offenders for the mandatory minimum of twenty-five years
will cost the state of California $812,500,000. To support these inmates for
longer periods of time we will have to increase the amount of money going to
could not take it any more and kill him self or they killed him. If they thought that he had
sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. The case against him was largely
by the people trying to pass this bill. But how did the bill become a
two murders, but during his incarceration awaiting death row he truly changed for the better
Hennis awaited on death row for two years before he was released due to the conviction being dismissed. The Supreme Court finally receive...
California's Proposition 13 had a big impact on American government and public policy because it put to vote the reduction of property taxes. This Proposition had a great impact as it swept the county and made headlines in newspapers around the world. People used this initiative process to gain a greater control over their lives. The California taxpayers stood up and said no more to excessive taxes because they were tired of out of control property taxes and losing their homes because they could not pay property taxes while the government did nothing to help them. This in turn hurt the schools, cities, counties and special districts. From this proposition, we have a few others like proposition 218 and proposition 37.
was said to have illegally taken the law into his own hands. He was charged with murder
It was vetoed repeatedly by the democratic governor until a republican was elected in 1987 (Kopel).
Proposition 8 was a piece of legislation formally called the California Marriage Protection Act which was an amendment to the Constitution of the State of California. The amendment was voted on and passed during the state elections of November 5th, 2008. The new legislation added to the constitution reads: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” The issue was prompted in May of 2008, when the California Supreme Court ruled that same sex couples had a right to marry one another according to the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution of the United States. This overruled earlier legislation known as Proposition 22, which was in fact the same as Proposition 8, but was a part of California’s Family Code, and not written into the constitution. Because the Constitution was given precedence over the Family Code in the Supreme Court’s ruling, Proposition 22 was rendered obsolete. Many people who shared conservative views about the meaning of marriage took exception to that and took action to create Proposition 8.
National Conference of State Legislatures. Wendy Underhill , 26 Mar. 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
California's education system is in dire need of reform, providing adequate funding to education has been a problem for decades. The “Golden Moment” in California took place in the mid twentieth century. During the governorship of Pat Brown, a Master Plan for higher education was adopted. This plan passed in 1960, it created a three tier system and aimed at providing universal access to higher education for all Californians. It was an innovative system that brought prestige to the state and helped manage the needs of the rapidly growing state population. The growth in population was fueled by the idea that California was the land of milk and honey but this influx caused property values to rise and consequently property taxes were hiked. California voters have the ability to use the initiative process to implement policy. While this is a unique aspect that allows Californians direct control in governance, it can make it difficult for the state government to provide enough funding. Among the legislation pushed by voters has been Proposition 13, it continues to have long lasting effects that impact tax revenue and budgetary decisions.
with no avail. A poll was taken on October 8-10 of 976 adults, 60 percent said
In January 2011, the bill was referred to the committee, and the hearing was held in May of the same year for the House and Senate to change the wording of the 2008 version of the Massachusetts Law. Various interest groups a...
before he was even convicted of the crime! Mr. Stevenson spends so much time advocating for
fact, from the time he was first put under arrest to when he was killed, he