NRA CrimeStrike's CrimeWatch Weekly Breaking news on critical crime-fighting issues, policies and legislation Vol. 3, No. 24 June 17, 1997 '3 Strike' Cases Underwhelm California Courts, Report Says California Superior Court felony trials increased just 4% in 1995-1996, the second full year of California's "Three Strikes and You're Out" law. That appears to contradict claims by some critics that the tough sentencing law adopted in March 1994 would overwhelm the state's court system. The California Judicial Council announced the figures for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1996, last week. The 4% increase for the year was down substantially from the 13% increase recorded the first year of the law, fiscal 1994-95. Three strikes critics had warned that accused criminals seeking to avoid the tougher "three strikes" penalties the law doubled sentences for second-time felons and exposes some third- time offenders to sentences from 25 years to life would seek trials and would overburden the state's criminal courts. But the number of criminal jury trials increased just 222 to 6,397 for 1995-96. Criminal jury trials accounted for just 4.2% of criminal dispositions during the year, according to report. While that's up from 4.1% a year earlier and 3.7% in 1993-94, the percentage of cases going to jury trial was actually higher in 1988-89 and earlier years. Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren announced in January that the state's major crime declined more than 12% in the first nine months of 1996, a figure confirmed by preliminary FBI figures released in June. Two States See Crime Go On 'Strike' Crime in both Washington state and California, the first states to enact "Three Strikes" laws, is decreasing faster than in the rest of the nation. NRA CrimeStrike actively supported passage of those laws in both states California's crime declined of more than 12% in the first nine months of 1996, the state said. The FBI had Los Angeles' index crime down 11.6%, Sacramento's 12.9%. Nationally, the FBI reports what it calls serious or index crime was down just 3% in 1996, with violent crime down 7%. Washington state, which adopted the nation's first "Three Strikes and You're Out" law in 1993, saw violent crime drop 9.5% last year, according to a report from the Washington Association of Sheriffs & Police Chiefs. Those figure likewise track with preliminary 1996 FBI data released for the state's larger cities earlier this month. "I think tougher sentences, such as our three-strikes law, have a lot to do with declines in violent crime rates," a Washington legislator told Associated Press. NJ Prisoners Copay As They Go New Jersey law prohibits denying medical care to those unable to pay the $5 fee or copayment for medical, dental and optometric services. However, thanks to a ruling by the State Superior Court appellate division, NJ prisons and county jails can charge a copayment fee to inmates who can afford to pay for medical services. Such fees have been upheld previously by federal courts, but the decision in Mourning v. Correctional Medical Services is considered significant because state courts have "afforded greater protection of individual rights than federal courts have," reports Corrections Journal. According to Corrections Compendium, health care is a significant cost concern for prison managers. It said prison health-care costs were more than $2.3 billion in 1995. Corrections Yearbook put the average per-day cost at $6.53 per inmate for 1995. "You watch," predicted CrimeStrike Director Elizabeth Swasey, "the same people who say incarceration is 'too expensive' will decry this cost-cutting measure -- which denies medical coverage to no one -- as unfair. But it makes sense that along with their restitution payments, those who can pay do pay," she said. Family Of Three Dead After NYC Judge Accepts Plea In Domestic Abuse Case Just 10 days after Richard Lyle Timmons was released from jail in exchange for a guilty plea on charges related to attacks on his wife, the New York Times reports police found Annita Stewart Timmons, 33, and the couple's son, Aaron, 7, decapitated, and Mrs. Timmons' other son, Sharron, 13, stabbed to death. The Queens DA's office said it had opposed Acting Justice Robert J. McDonald's decision to accept Timmons' guilty plea to nine counts of assault, unlawful imprisonment, menacing, and criminal possession of a knife charges for which he could have received seven to nine years in prison in exchange for a year in jail. A spokesman for Judge McDonald said the guilty plea had been accepted because Mrs. Timmons refused to testify against her husband. However, a spokesperson for Queens DA Richard A. Brown said his office was prepared to prosecute without her testimony. Because he had already served the time, Timmons walked free after pleading guilty on May 29. A publication of NRA CrimeStrike 11250 Waples Mill Rd., Fairfax, VA 22030 Tel.800.868.4411; Fax 703.267.3992; http://www.nra.org Reproduction permitted with credit. Source materials available. =+=+=+=+ This information is provided as a service of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, Fairfax, VA. 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