Where is 1% of the American adult population?

[kandrathe]

Yes, and if you had read that wiki article, you would see that he had been in and out of jail for almost 2 decades when the 3 strikes law was instituted on him. He was a career criminal and had not been rehabilitated in the almost two decades he'd been in and out of jail. He'd been given plenty of chances to rehabilitate, he choose not to.

I did read it. But, I'm under the assumption that if you are released from prison, you've paid your debt to society. His recent crimes were shoplifting videos, and in my opinion, didn't warrant a 25 year prison sentence. Many murderers serve less time.

"California charged respondent Andrade with two felony counts of petty theft with a prior conviction after he stole approximately $150 worth of videotapes from two different stores." -- From the Supreme court brief

So, these are two petty misdemeanors, but the prosecution took the opportunity to bring back his prior felony convictions for application of the three strikes law which had been passed after the prior felonies were served. So, for his mistake of stealing $150 worth of Videos, his past was used against him.

If you are looking at it from the "correctional" point of view, the prior time he spent getting "corrected" didn't really help, based on his recidivism. Perhaps, another form of intervention is required.

The only way I can interpret this law, is that they don't care what you've done to commit the felony, at some point the society is tired of trying and so they want to dispose of the human garbage. The prisons have become human garbage dumps.