November 14, 1999
INITIATIVE DRIVE GIVING HOPE TO INMATES SAY PROPONENTS
Mail is "pouring in like a storm from prisons throughout California," according to Three Strikes reform Initiative proponent Valerie L. Monroe, "ever since we announced the filing of an initiative to reform California's Three Strikes criminal sentencing law. The initiative, which was announced at a September 22 Los Angeles Press Conference, "is finally giving hope to thousands of inmates and their families throughout California," said Monroe, a Los Angeles area Criminal Defense lawyer.
The initiative, if passed by the voters, would
- Limit the application of the three strikes sentencing enhancements to convictions for "serious" and "violent" felonies
- Abolish the use of "juvenile adjudications," where the defendant did not have a right to a jury trial, as prior strikes
- Make the changes retroactive so that anybody who was sentenced for commission of a non-violent, non?serious offense will have to be re-sentenced under the previously existing laws
The official proponents and co-authors of the legislation are Attorney Valerie L. Monroe and Private Investigator Jan B. Tucker. Endorsements and messages of support for the proposal have been received from Californians to Amend Three Strikes (CATS), National Association of Brothers & Sisters In a Out (NABSIO), Save Our Sons (SOS), National Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression (NAARPR), Black Defense League (BDL), People Against Racist Terror (PART), the California Libertarian Party, Sonoma County Peace & Freedom Party, the Nation of Islam, California State Conference of NAACP, and the San Fernando Valley/Northeast Los Angeles Chapter of the National Organization for Women (SFV/NELA NOW).
Lawyers endorsing the measure so far include Roger Jon Diamond (author of the 1972 Clean Environment Act and the 1974 Political Reform Act), Marge Buckley (first woman to run for California Attorney General and L.A. County D.A.), anti-racist activist Art Goldberg, A. Michael Batista, Art Azdair, Josh Glotzer, and Ron Martinetti (author of "The James Dean Story").
"Our goal is to stop the Insanity of meting out life terms to shop lifters and others who commit petty and non-serious offenses," said Valerie Monroe. "The state should be spending its money on keeping people out of prisons instead of engaging in a full throttle campaign for the Infamy of having the fastest growing prison population in the world. California voters were misled as to the application of this law which is a tremendous burden to taxpayers."
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