BILL NUMBER:  SB 873
  VETOED	DATE: 10/10/1999




October 10, 1999

To the Members of the Senate:

I am returning Senate Bill No. 873 without my signature.

This measure would require a study by the Legislative Analyst, with
assistance from the Judicial Council, the Attorney General, and the
University of California, to examine the cost and benefits of the
"Three Strikes" law.

There have been numerous studies of the impact of the Three Strikes
law by the Department of Justice, the RAND Corporation, and numerous
academics.  The Department of Corrections measures the number of
inmates serving time under the law and the cost of incarceration.
The savings associated with the law, in terms of lives not destroyed,
injuries not sustained, and property not stolen from the lower crime
rates is ultimately incalculable, but very significant.

The benefit of the Three Strikes law will continue for years to come.
  No study, or series of studies, can resolve contentious
philosophical and ideological disagreements over the purpose of
imprisonment or the appropriate penalty for repeat felons.

However, one thing cannot be denied.  Proposition 184 was approved by
a majority of the voters and since 1993, violent crime has dropped
thirty-five percent, robbery forty-eight percent, and homicide fifty
percent.  An additional study of the Three Strikes law is unlikely to
produce much, if any, useful information that is not already
available.

For these reasons, I am vetoing this measure.

Sincerely,





GRAY DAVIS