Burchett / 6 Senator Collar

S.R._____

A BILL
To withhold certain Federal Crime Prevention funds from States which fail to remove non-violent crimes from any
Three Strikes Laws.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This act may be cited as the (Nonviolent Offenses) Act of 2015.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
Congress hereby finds and declares that,
A) About 79 percent of the 3,278 prisoners serving life sentences without parole were sentenced to die in prison for
nonviolent drug crimes.
B) The per capita number of prisoners serving life without parole sentences in the United States is 51 times that of
Australia, 173 times that of the United Kingdom, and 29 times that of the Netherlands.
C) Of the states that sentence nonviolent offenders to life without parole, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi,
South Carolina, and Oklahoma have the highest numbers of prisoners serving life without parole for nonviolent
crimes, largely due to three-strikes and other kinds of habitual offender laws that mandate a life without parole
sentence for the commission of a nonviolent crime.
D) An average yearly cost of an elderly prisoner is 60-70,000 dollars.
E) The rate of Latinos serving life without parole for nonviolent offenses ranges from a high of 12.7 per 1,000,000
residents in Louisiana to 9 in Oklahoma, 7.32 in Florida, 1.25 in Illinois, 11.24 in the federal system, and 0 in South
Carolina and Mississippi.
F) Latinos are serving life without parole for nonviolent crimes at a rate that is almost 8 times the rate of whites in
Illinois and almost twice the rate of whites in Louisiana.
G) William Dufries, 55, who has served 10 years of his life without parole sentence for trafficking marijuana and is
imprisoned at a cost to Oklahoma taxpayers of $18,467 per year.
H) The ACLU estimates that the total fiscal cost-savings to taxpayers if state and federal sentencing statutes were
revised to eliminate nonviolent offenses for eligibility for life without parole sentences would be at least 1.784 billion
dollars.
I) In a 2009 study, the Pew Center on the states estimated that total corrections spending has reached $68 billion, an
increase of 336 percent since 1986.
J) Of the states that sentence nonviolent offenders to life without parole, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi,
South Carolina, and Oklahoma have the highest numbers of prisoners serving life without parole for nonviolent
crimes, largely due to the three-strikes and other kinds of habitual offender laws that mandate a life without parole
sentence for the commission of a nonviolent crime.
K) An estimated 65% of prisoners serving for nonviolent drug related crimes are Black.
SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
A) The Habitual Offender Laws of every individual States Penal Code regarding Three Strikes Laws is amended
to read: any person convicted of a serious felony who has been convicted of a serious felony or of any offense
committed in another jurisdiction which exclude all of the elements of any serious physically violent felony, such as
nonviolent drug related offenses and cases regarding self defense, shall receive, the sentence imposed by the court
offense, a five-year enhancement for each prior conviction on charges brought and tried separately. The terms of the
current offense and each enhancement shall be subject to a retrial after the first eight months served if the past
records include any nonviolent offenses.
B) All states will enact this bill to remove non-violent crimes from any Three Strikes Laws, 1.2 million dollars of
Federal Crime Prevention funds will be withheld from States which fail to remove non-violent crimes from the
Three Strikes Laws.
C) This bill will take effect six months after January 1st of the new year to remove all non-violent crimes from any
Three Strikes Laws.
Nonviolent Offense Act Press Release

The American people are alarmed about crime, and with good cause to be. The crime rate in the United States incredibly
high, and many fear they will become another statistic. State and federal crime control policies have been based -for more than 20
years- on the belief that harsh sentencing laws will discourage people from committing crimes. New solutions to the increasing
crime problem in America are needed, but instead, our political leaders keep using the same strategies. The "Three Strikes and
You're Out" law- imposes a mandatory life sentence without parole on offenders convicted of certain crimes. Despite its catchy
baseball metaphor, this law should be amended because it imposes life sentences on some offenders whose crimes dont warrant the
punishments received, the jarring impact it has on minority offenders, taking away the ability of sentencing discretion from judges,
the unnecessary funding it takes to imprison offenders who are deemed criminals for petty crimes, and contrary to mosts belief the
Three Strikes Laws are not a fair response to crime.
Some "Three Strikes" supporters may claim that they want to protect society from only the most dangerous felons, but
many of the "Three Strikes" Laws propose a broad range of criminal conduct, from rape to minor assaults.
In an open letter to the Washington State voters, more than 20 current and former prosecutors urged the public to vote against the
"3 Strikes" proposal. Although the Three Strikes Law's purpose is to commit repeat offenders, life sentences unbefitting the crime
is a harsh reality for many unfortunate Americans-who face time for petty offenses. The violent and serious felonies that serve a
crucial point to why the Three Strikes Laws were created, are all offenses that could be handled more severely. Most of the
offenses that lead Americans to support the Three Strikes Laws are such heinous felonies that one could find a simple solution in
committing criminals of these felonies to harsher punishments. 7.9% of sentenced prisoners in federal prisons on September 30,
2009 were in for violent crimes. 52.4% of sentenced prisoners in state prisons at year end 2008 were in for violent crimes. 21.6% of
convicted inmates in jails in 2002 (latest available data by type of offense) were in for violent crimes. Such high numbers of
prisoners sentenced for violent crimes shows a need for harsher punishments to deal with the increasing issue of high degree crimes
being committed. Its been well-documented that the US is the Worlds No. 1 Jailer, and imprisons far more of its people than any
other country on the planet, including countries generally thought to be repressive. In our justice system we should not to let those
who commit low level crimes suffer the inevitability of facing the Three Strikes Law after serving time and facing the harsh
impact it has on minority offenders.
Racial bias in the criminal justice system is rampant and an ever increasing issue in the United States . African American
men, in particular, are overrepresented in all criminal justice statistics regarding arrests, victimizations, and incarceration. This
imbalance is largely the result of the "war on drugs." An issue that plagues the Three Strikes Laws due to the severity ofthe
charges when more often than not these crimes are nonviolent. Although studies show that drug use among blacks and whites is
proportionate, many more blacks than whites are arrested on drug charges. Today, one in four young black men are under some
form of criminal sanction, be it incarceration, probation or parole. Because many of these laws include drug offenses as prior
"strikes," more black than white offenders will be subject to life sentences under a "Three Strikes" Law. According to the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, African Americans constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million
incarcerated population, and have nearly six times the incarceration rate of whites. In regards to representing minorities, Latinos
are serving life without parole for nonviolent crimes at a rate that is almost 8 times the rate of whites in Illinois and almost twice
the rate of whites in Louisiana. With America already facing such high issues concerning racial discrimination and bias a large
relief on the issue could be simply amending nonviolent offenses- those also concerning drug related crimes- easing arrests,
victimizations, incarceration and executions- on African Americans struggling in low income neighborhoods and the war on drugs
an issue also easily solved by allowing judges more unrestrained ability to sentence prisoners accordingly when they do fall under
the Three Strikes Law.
The Three Strikes" differ from most habitual offender laws because they make life sentences without parole mandatory.
Therefore, judges who have traditionally been responsible for such circumstances before imposing sentence cannot. Judicial
discretion in sentencing, which is admired all over the world for treating people as individualspossibly one of the greatest things about America's government. Eliminating the possibility of parole ignores the fact that even the
most incorrigible offenders can be transformed while in prison. Countless examples are on record of convicts who have reformed
themselves through study, good work,or other efforts during their years in prison. Such people deserve a second chance that "Three
Strikes" laws make impossible. But with the crime rate in the United States becoming incredibly high we have good cause to make
changes now, Three Strikes Laws is a policy that should be amended.