CRIME:
The Costs of Getting Tough*

By Joseph D. McNamara

In November 1994, California voters passed Proposition 184, the "three strikes" ballot initiative. The initiative required criminals to receive life sentences for third felony convictions. How has the law been working? According to Hoover fellow and former San Jose chief of police Joseph D. McNamara, not well at all.

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Joseph D. McNamara is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. He was chief of police for the city of San Jose, California, for fifteen years.