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Second Chances and Costs
00:01:45
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| With the reforms in the criminal justice system, there was a movement to bring a ballot initiative to remove the Three Strikes Law this year in California. | |
| However, the initiative did not collect enough signatures and will not be on the ballot this November. | |
| Is California's Three Strikes Law too harsh? | |
| Or is it necessary to have strict punishments for people who repeatedly commit violent crimes? | |
| In other words, you're going to reduce the crime rate far more by focusing on the people who are most likely to continue committing crimes. | |
| How do you know somebody is most likely to continue committing crimes? | |
| Because they've got a criminal history, a lengthy one. | |
| Also, in California, it cost us about $106,000 per year to house one inmate in prison. | |
| When compared to college costs, this is more than double. | |
| But is there a higher cost to society by letting the criminals commit more crimes? | |
| For every armed robbery, there is a cost. | |
| For every homicide, there is a cost. | |
| In terms of lost productivity, lost tax revenue, lost earnings of income over the course of a person's life, the cost of crime is much, much greater than the cost of incarceration. | |
| It isn't even close. | |
| It's a hundredfold. | |
| To understand the Three Strikes Law, I sat down with Michael Reynolds. | |
| Michael is a private attorney. | |
| The murder of his sister prompted him and his father to draft the Three Strikes Law. | |
| Michael will discuss with us how the Three Strikes Law works and the consequences of giving a second chance to the wrong person. | |
| When you misplace your sympathy and say, oh yes, we want to give somebody a second chance, well that's fine, but at whose expense? | |
| You're not going to say that if you know what the percentage chance is of you being that person's next murder victim. | |
| I'm Siamai Koremi. | |