Three decades after Californians voted “yes” on Proposition 184, more commonly known as “Three Strikes” law, the racist ramifications of that vote are now being exposed.
In 2021, the Committee on Revision of the Penal Code published its annual report, which included data that shows 33,000 people in prison are serving a sentence enhanced by the Three Strikes law. 80% of those individuals are people of color.
The racial disparities are even more pronounced for young people sentenced under the Three Strikes law. The report shows that 90% of those sentenced at 25-years-old or younger at the time of their offense were people of color.
San Quentin resident Giovanni Gladden, 58, has been incarcerated over two decades and is a self-proclaimed “legal beagle.” He says he has been studying law for 35 years, and that he has assisted many incarcerated residents with their legal arguments.
“In my assistance in helping residents navigate [through] the legal system, I’ve noticed a significant disparity in charging crimes,” Gladden said. “Two people could shoot a person in the foot; the person of color will be charged with attempted murder and the Caucasian suspect would be charged with assault.”
He added that he has concerns about President Trump’s current political stance on race-based policy reforms such as attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives, stating that he felt that California’s Racial Justice Act could soon find itself in the President’s political crosshairs.
According to West Law, in an effort to address these racial disparities, California lawmakers passed the Racial Justice Act. The RJA provision enacted in 2020 allows anyone charged with a crime or serving time, has the right to challenge his or her conviction or sentence if it was obtained by racial animus or bias.
RJA prohibits the state from seeking, obtaining, or imposing a sentence on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin.
A report dated December 2023 by the UC Law Journal titled “Proving Actionable Racial Disparity” uncovered a startling trend. In California, the Black populations in nearly all 58 counties — from the smallest to the largest, from the least to the most diverse — are affected by this trend.
These Californians are three times more likely to have an arrest record than White Californians, and four times more likely to have at least one felony conviction. This report also states that Black people are six times as likely to have received a sentence that resulted in jail or prison time.
Black people in all but two counties are more likely to have a felony conviction than White Californians. The two exceptions are Alpine and Sierra Counties, which have a combined Black population of 13 individuals, stated in the Journal.
The report gives an example of San Mateo County, stating that the total population is roughly 765,000 residents, with approximately 18,000 Black people and 300,000 White.
And still the report shows that out of the 1,037 residents of the county sentenced under the Three Strikes law, 724 are Black, while 17 are White.
Even in a county like San Francisco, which does not utilize the Three Strikes law as frequently as other counties, the racial disparities of application are extensive. There are 357 San Franciscans serving a Three Strikes sentence 199 are Black and four are White. This data suggests that for every White person that receives a Three Strikes sentence in SF County, 50 Black people will receive that same sentence, according to the UC Law Journal.
“The data shows that no matter what they say about DEI, the Racial Justice Act is necessary in California,” Gladden said. “However, like any law that gives people of color judicial relief, the window for relief is only allowed open for a short period of time before it is shut by law makers, or ambitious politicians screaming from the rooftops about imaginary rising crime rates.”
