LOS ANGELES, March 8 -- California Governor Pete Wilson Monday signed a 'three strikes and you're out' bill that imposes 25-years to life prison sentences on three-time felons in California.
During a ceremony at the Los Angeles Police Department's Hollywood Division station, Wilson called the measure 'the toughest and most sweeping crime bill in California history.'
Wilson backed the measure, despite concerns by many prosecutors and law enforcement officials that the bill could cost the state billions and clog the justice system with thousands of new cases.
'It is expensive, yes it is,' Wilson said in answer to a reporter's question. 'But not nearly as expensive as not doing it.'
The measure, authored by Assemblyman Bill Jones, R-Fresno, mandates a sentence of 25 years to life in prison for any third-time felon who has committed two previous serious or violent felonies.
Because the third felony would not have to be serious or violent, critics contend the law could keep thousands of burglars and bad-check writers behind bars for life.
The Department of Corrections estimates it will have to build 20 new prisons to house the 81,000 extra inmates that will be incarcerated under the provisions by the turn of the century. California prisons currently house 120,000 inmates.
Wilson countered that argument by saying the deterrent effect of the 'three strikes' measure would serve to decrease California's prison population, which he said tripled in the 1980s.
'They may be vicious,' Wilson said of the state's career criminals, 'but they're not fools.'
Along with the 'three strikes' provisions, the Jones bill doubles the sentences of felons who commit their second serious or violent felony. It also reduces 'good time' credits for all serious and violent felonies from 50 percent of their sentences to 20 percent.
Jim Costa, a co-author of the 'three strikes' bill signed by Wilson, called the initiative an 'insurance policy to ensure that the integrity of the legislation is maintained.'
California's 'three strikes' law is only the second passed in the United States, and is considered the harshest. A similar proposal was enacted in Washington in 1993, but that law does not encompass most felonies committed while an offender was a juvenile.