EDITORIAL
Three-Strikes legacy little to crow about

California's "Three-Strikes-You're-Out" law turns 10 years old today, and a new study suggests it's not all it was cracked up to be.

The law requiring 25 years to life in prison for third-time offenders was passed in the politically-charged aftermath of the kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas.

A decade later, a study by a prison reform group known as the Justice Policy Institute says the law has proven ineffective and discriminatory.

More than half of three-strikers in California were sent to prison for 25-to-life for nonviolent offenses and blacks were 12 times more likely to "strike out" than whites, according to the study.

Meanwhile, taxpayers spent approximately $8 billion on extra incarceration costs for three-strikers between 1994 and 2003, and more than half of that went to inmates sentenced for nonviolent offenses.

That's a law Hawai'i can do without.