After being locked up for nearly two decades some of the beneficiaries of last November’s change in California’s Three Strikes Law are being let out of prison with only $200 “gate money” in their pockets, reports the San Jose Mercury News (tkaplan@mercurynews.com).
After many offenders are re-sentenced, the time for court ordered parole or probation would have elapsed. Therefore, they are being released into communities unconditionally without state or county supervision or social services. Things like health care, housing, food stamps, will not be easy for these newly release men and women to obtain, according to the Mercury News report.
Experts say California voters did not consider this lack of oversight for re-sentenced three strikers when they approved the change in law, according to the report.
It’s only a matter of time before some of these newly released offenders start committing new crimes, says Mike Reynolds, one of the drafters of the Three Strike Law in the Mercury News report.
Michael Romano, director of Stanford’s Three Strikes Project, led the ballot measure to change the law.
Romano is planning to meet with community service providers to help newly released offenders ease back into their communities safely by meeting “with operators of homeless shelters and innovative transitional programs from around the state, like San Francisco’s Delancey Street foundation,” according to the report.
“We want these people to succeed,” said Romano. “We don’t want them committing crimes and creating more victims.”
Newly released three-strikers have a higher need for mental health treatment than the general population, said Joan Petersilia, a Stanford law professor, in the Mercury News report.
The Stanford group is seeking private donors to add to existing re-entry programs, according to the report.
Santa Clara County assists anyone coming out of jail or prison at the Re-entry Resource Center, at 70 W. Hedding St., San Jose, Calif., with mental health services, free clothing, housing assistance and food stamps, the Mercury News reports.
