A documentary profiles Shane Taylor, one of more than 4,000 nonviolent offenders serving life in California prisons under a three-strikes law.
In 1994, California voters passed the harshest three-strikes law in the country. Soon after, stories began to emerge about people receiving life sentences for petty crimes such as stealing a pair of gloves or a slice of pizza. Such cases challenged the commonly held belief that the law applied only to violent criminals.
Our interest in this issue deepened when we read the results of a 2010 report, shared with us by the Three Strikes Project at Stanford Law School. The study showed that more than 4,000 inmates in California are serving life sentences for nonviolent offenses under the three-strikes law. While it is possible that some of the inmates may be eligible for parole after 25 years, a majority face the prospect of decades of prison time. Many of these stiff sentences struck us as egregious.
Although judges have sentencing discretion in a very narrow band of three-strikes cases, the reality is that judges almost universally consider themselves bound under California law to impose a life sentence for a third felony offense, no matter how minor.
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Prison Reform Movement's Weblog- America: Land of the Free, Home of the Incarcerated 
And in England the government are calling for a “2-strikes” law…
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They need to do something about the old lifers who went in under the 7-life law. Who was sentenced under the old law and was changed to the new law.my husband got 7-life with a max of 10 years. It has been 40 years.
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