>>>3 strikes - you're dead.
>>
>>California's "3 strikes and you're out" law is a good example of something that sounds good at the time but winds up having lots of unintended consequences. Remember the infamous case of a guy who received a mandatory life sentence for stealing some VHS tapes from a department store? I'm not saying that is the typical case -- some of these guys really should be locked up for the rest of their life -- but it illustrates the pitfalls of rigid sentencing laws.
>
>Perhaps he shouldn't have stolen the VHS tapes and committed the other 2 crimes?

No doubt he shouldn't, but I can't conceive of a situation in which a petty theft in and of itself deserves a life sentence. Can you?

Tamar