by B. Cayenne Bird
 

There's a great deal of mass brainwash which happens when the news media prints the government press releases about crime statistics without ever mentioning the fact that they are useless. The public has been suckered with soundbites and statistics into thinking that crime is down because of Three Strikes, Mandatory Minimums, the Death Penalty and Prisons. Nothing is further from the truth.
 

The Orange County Register, New York Times and Pennsylvania Newspapers have clearly exposed at least 15 variables in the way the statistics are prepared which make them useless as a true measure of crime. (Click on the link below for many of these variables) 

Manipulated statistics are a gimmick to justify billions of dollars in building up a police state and nothing more! 
 

For example, not all police agencies report every year. Oakland hasn't reported for four years and the number of agencies who do report vary every single year. On this one variable alone, no previous year's crime statistics can be compared to another one accurately. Participation in reporting by the various agencies is strictly voluntary. They cannot be construed as factual!
 

The FBI openly admits these variables. They preface most of their releases with this sentence "City to City and year to year comparisons should not be made due to variables in reporting techniques" They pump the propaganda but at least admit the variables in small print.At their website they caution readers not to make over-simplistic comparisons, though this is never mentioned in the media-hyped reports www.fbi.gov./ucr/faqs.htm
 

Yet, here in California where Wilson and Lungren built a multibillion dollar slave labor industry off the freedom of our young people in prisons, we have been doused with repeated reports that crime is down. Why is our government lying to us? And, doesn't it make sense that if the state officials think that crime is down, $6 billion dollars in new prisons would be the last thing on their minds? If crime is up, they shout for more new prisons. If crime is down, they make the same cry. All this money wasted and prisons are not a solution to crime. They never have been and they never will be as good as education, prevention and rehabilitation. If you want to believe in statistics generated by some government agency, then look at some of the studies which support restorative justice as a real solution to crime.

Juvenile crime is up 44% in Orange County if what is printed in the newspaper from Government press releases is to be believed. Fresno also reports a dramatic increase. If you believe that crime is down, I'd like to talk to you about buying some swamp land in Florida.
 

Each Three Striker is costing the taxpayers from $700,000 to one million dollars each. Out of the 160,000 people in prison, only 30% are in for violent crimes. With the injustice and corruption which exists in the system, even that figure is questionable. 
 

I can put you in touch with families who have lost their loved ones for life for petty thefts such as stealing a bicycle, stealing three cookies, running away when chased by a policeman - crimes which aren't really crimes.
 

Twenty years ago, these "laws" weren't even considered crimes but as normal kid behavior. Most of the criminals are boys 18-23 years of age.

A strong economy for everyone and prevention through education, free after school activities, adult supervision of young people and restorative justice laws would be far less costlier and far more effective in reducing crime. We really need to recognize that l/3 of all babies born are to mothers under the age of 18 and give our teens more love and support.
 

If anyone was really looking to reduce crime and solve the problems, there are plenty of statistics around on better ways to do it than to lock other human beings in cages.
 

. Everyone thinks it isn't going to be their friends and family snatched up by the government to be imprisoned until it's too late.
 

Public sentiment is callous and people wrongly assume the system is in place and functioning. They cannot imagine that 70% of the people in prison are there for nonviolent crimes and many are innocent. The law goes too far. It is cruel and unusual punishment to take people away from their families for such long terms with phony crime stats as the only justification for it.
 

Three Strikes is a bad law put into place by bad politicians needing financing for 36 prisons that make mattresses, grind eyeglasses, bottle milk, make shoes and clothing and pay youth 20 cents an hour. All this brings a big profit to the state. It IS about money. The senate vote for SB79 might be coming up shortly, or it might be moved until next year. Citizens need to be phoning, visiting, fax and writing the Senators in attempt to override all the legislative payoffs made by the CCPOA Prison Guard's Union. Pressure is needed by the media and the taxpayers to get these bad laws changed.
 

Three Strikes is forcing people on welfare, tearing apart families and not doing one thing to reduce crime because the worst of the criminals are never arrested. Many are sitting in Sacramento and acting as judges, district attorneys and corrupt prison guards who run drug rings. Wake up!!

More solutions to crime can be found at our website, if anyone is really looking for solutions. Restorative Justice is working in many states already far more effectively than retributive law. The Three Strikes law is not a solution a crime.