LOS ANGELES�At a Sept. 22 press conference in front of the Los Angeles Criminal Courts Building, defense attorney Valerie Monroe and the Black Defense League (BDL) announced a ballot initiative to reform the state�s "three strikes" sentencing law.

"Our goal is to stop the insanity of meting out life to shoplifters and others who commit petty and non-serious offenses," said Atty. Monroe, who represents the Political Action Committee and the California Three Strikes Project, is a co-author of the initiative. The measure needs to receive 600,000 signatures to appear on ballots for an up or down vote by state residents. Organizers hope to have the measure ready by November 2000 elections.

"We believe that the Three Strikes Law under it current application is a violation not only of human rights, but it is a burden to the tax payers of California," said Atty. Monroe. She said it costs approximately $600,000 to house an inmate in the California prison system for 25 years. The three strike law invokes a 25 year to life sentence life for a third felony conviction.

Atty. Monroe stated that voters were misled about application of the law, and thought it would only apply to a third felony conviction for a serious or violent crime�such as murder, mayhem or rape. That has not been the case in recent three strike convictions, including one for pizza theft, she said.

"The state should be spending its money on keeping people out of prisons instead of engaging in a full throttle campaign for the infamy of having the fastest growing prison population in the world," Ms. Monroe added.

If passed, the initiative would limit three strikes convictions to serious or violent felonies, abolish the use of juvenile cases with no right to a jury trial, and make the changes retroactive so anyone sentenced for three strike non-violent or non-serious offenses could be resentenced. Effective March 7, 1994, the current three strikes law allows imprisonment of any person convicted of three or more felonies, whether committed in California or other states.

Secretary of State Bill Jones, speaking to the media at a counter press conference shortly after Atty. Monroe and the BDL addressed reporters, said the three strikes law is working.

According to Mr. Jones, an original author of the three strikes law, there has been a sizable drop in inmate populations since it passed and dangerous criminals are kept in prison.

"I don�t mean to state that the total reduction, all reduction in crime has strictly been because of three strikes, but there�s no question" the law has helped, he argued.

His office reported murder and robbery rates in California are down by 50 percent, with overall crime down 38 percent. Mr. Jones also denies prison overpopulation has resulted as opponents charge.

"Three strikes is a bust," said Dan Macallair, associate director of the Justice Policy Institute and co-author of a study that found no evidence three strikes reduced California crime. The study also found wide disparity on how the law was invoked. Using crime data from 1991 to 1997, the institute found three strikes sentencing has been applied mostly for nonviolent crimes.

Jan Tucker, a private investigator and co-author of the initiative, said that the law helps California prisons engage in the same types abuses and forced labor that are opposed in China. "California prisons are producing clothing at rates that are cheap that we are exporting them to Asia ... this is an outrage and we are about to change it," he said.

Min. Tony Muhammad, Nation of Islam western regional representative and BDL chairman, initiative supporters are out to halt an influx of Black and Latino men and women into state. Saying the law targets Black and Latino inner city youth, Min. Tony pointed to a recent Los Angeles Department probe of cover-ups and set-ups as proof the initiative is timely.