In this film interviews with current and former 3-Strikers, family members, public officials. Script below the fold.
Justice Is No Game: A Briefing on 3-Strikes
If you're in Washington please come to an April 14 benefit for 3-Strikes reform. Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness keynotes.
Transcript: JUSTICE IS NO GAME: A Briefing on Washington’s 3-Strikes Law, April 2010
Smple electric bass. Title and subtitle of film scrolling down in white letters on black background.
Second frame with white letters on black background: "Washington’s 3-Strikes law, modeled on a game, imposes a sentence of Life Without Parole: "Life Without"
3-Striker John Wheeler begins speaking during third frame with words is shown and then is shown speaking:
John Wheeler: "Coming to jail, getting this time, this Life Without, I prefer not to use the term, Life Without. Because I’m full of life. And I refuse to be Without... God in my life. You understand what I’m saying? Three Strikes, ok Three Strikes. It’s a game to them but it’s life to me.
Third frame with words (Justice Works! logo at bottom of screen): "For more information and to join in coordinated action for reform: justiceisnogame.org
3-Striker David Conyers begins speaking while frame with words is shown and then is shown speaking:
David Conyers: "A person has to have some compassion – whether if you’re a judge, prosecutor, lawyer, legislator, whatever. And I understand, granted, if a person commits a crime or does something wrong they have to be punished. But there also has to be compassion. If all you can think about is just lock em up, throw away the key but you don’t have any resources. .... You gotta, first of all, you’ve got to go to the root of the problem and find out why is this person acting this way? Why is this person committing crimes, or why is this person in the streets? And that person is going to let you know what his or her problem is.
Noemie; Did anyone ever ask you?
David Conyers: Not really, no, not really.
Third frame with white letters on black background: The lines:
777 Years
77 Months
77 Days
scroll down slowly one by one till they appear together on the screen.
Voice: 777 years, 77 months, and 77 days with No Possibility of Release. That’s the sentence being served under Washington’s 3-Strikes law by Larry Fisher, David Conyers, Schawn Cruze, Paul Rivers, John Wheeler, Stonney Rivers, Michael Hoover, and James Moody.
What makes these men, even if they live to 100, so much more dangerous than the 18,000 other people now in Washington prisons who don’t have sentences that last forever?
Five of these 8 men have never been convicted for any crime classified higher than the lowest quarter of criminal seriousness under Washington state law. Two others have no convictions higher than the middle of that scale, Robbery 1.
These seven are among well over 100 3-Strikers in Washington who have never been convicted of a crime classified as a Serious Violent Offense. That’s more than a third of the state’s total population of about 300 3-Strikers.
King County Councilmember Larry Gossett:
"One of the problems we have in relation to 3-Strikes is that in the minds of most people, they remember what John Carlson, the primary community sponsor of this legislation said in 1993 and 1994 when he was soliciting signatures. He said, what I have in mind, is to get the worst of the worst identified throughout our state and put them in jail so that they won’t harm our society any more.
But what in practice has occurred is that it has not been the worst of the worst, the most violent or criminally irrational or insane that have been caught in the web of the 3-strikes system in our community and in our state. It has been, in fact, the unfortunate poor who have – a large percentage of which have very low-level crimes that you and I have been talking about, second degree robbery, pickpocketing, taking goods and groceries out of a store, a barroom brawl, are leading them to being in jail their entire lives.
"... some of the worst of the worst but, far more often, it has been the poor, the disaffected, the disadvantaged, the mentally ill, and the drug abusers ... who have been caught in the web of 3-Strikes."
Voice: An estimated 70-85% of state inmates need addiction treatment with less than 11% receiving it. All eight 3-Strikers featured in this film struggled with addiction for years. A high investment was made to imprison them repeatedly. But a much smaller and more effective investment of addiction treatment was in most cases not made.
Stonney Rivers; "We were young and rambunctious and we had drug habits, smoking marijuana, drinking, under aged drinking, mind you. Always under the influence when the crimes were committed. During times of arrest people would ask: Were you under the influence when you committed these crimes? We answered the questions truthfully, never received any help, no offer for drug treatment."
Paul Rivers; "... the craving, it was so on me, I was so into what I did -- and it wasn’t the right (thing). When I came down a lot of times I realized it really wasn’t me. I kind of hated I never had a chance to be in a drug program. Every time they would say, ok, I’m going to give you this little slap on the wrist and whatnot and put me back on the street and that was that."
Noemie Maxwell: So you never got treatment?
Paul Rivers; Never got treatment.
Noemie Maxwell: Would you have taken it?
Paul Rivers; Yeah! If I got out today, I would probably still go through it.
Frame with white letters on black background, low bass in background: "Paul Rivers served 3 months for his first strike conviction and less than 2 years for his second. Drug treatment was ordered – but not received. After each conviction, he was able to stay clean for several months before relapsing."
Noemie: Maxwell: I want to ask you about the robberies. Were there drugs involved?
Larry Fisher; Yes, there were drugs. Because I was always.. like I say, most of my life – I don’t know, people say it’s hereditary too, if your family, both my grandparents I was raised with were alcoholics, you know. And when I was young, alcohol was easily accessible, you know. There was nothing to getting into the fridge and taking a couple 2-3 beers out and go behind the garage and drink them you know, because it was always accessible.
Noemie Maxwell: And you didn’t get punished for that? Your grandfather didn’t keep track of the beers?
Larry Fisher; No, he just didn’t keep track. And the older I got ... and even in the boys homes in Euphrata and Wenatchee, it seemed like they justified what we did, they let us go out and drink.
Noemie Maxwell: They let you go out and drink?
Larry Fisher; And smoke weed and stuff like that. And we came back and they would just, you know, nothing, you know: "Go to your room."
Noemie Maxwell: Did they give you the alcohol and pot?
Larry Fisher; No, no they didn’t provide it, but it was easy being a teenager – stand out in front of the store and have some guy go in and buy you a case of beer or something.
Noemie Maxwell: But you would find it somehow..
Larry Fisher; ... but it was easy being a teenager – stand out in front of the store and have some guy go in and buy you a case of beer or something. I can honestly say, sitting here today if I didn’t have the mental issues I have and the drug abuse, I wouldn’t have robbed anything. I don’t believe I’d be sitting here today saying I robbed any place. Because I need to support that habit was my only reason for doing that.
Dr. Lawrence Hoover; You know what his third strike was?
Noemie Maxwell: No, I don’t.
Dr. Lawrence Hoover; He robbed our grocery store. Our grocery store up here in Mukilteo. That’s where he was caught.
Noemie Maxwell: Do you think these were possibly messages to you?
Dr. Lawrence Hoover; No, I don’t. No because he was robbing – he says five or six robberies a day – barristas – in order to support his drug habit and that sort of thing.
Noemie Maxwell: Was this meth, was this heroine, do you know?
Dr. Lawrence Hoover; At this time it was cocaine. And he really felt sorry for these girls that he was taking the money from, he could see that some of them were really upset. So he left tips with them.
John Wheeler: Heroin addiction itself is just a terrible thing for anyone to go through. Once I got so deep off into the addiction and, of course needing money for it, I basically resorted to doing things that I shouldn’t have done, that I’m ashamed that I’ve done, in order to feed the habit.
Words on screen over image of John Wheeler speaking: "John Wheeler answering the question: Did 3-Strikes serve at all to deter you from committing crimes?"
John Wheeler: Let me put it this way. I had two strikes. I knew I had two strikes. But the dependency on the drug at that time, the frame of mind I was in, the state my body was in, I didn’t care! That’s just how strong the drug is. I’ve OD’d three times! And you would think that after ODing ... dying
Noemie Maxwell: You’d think death would be a deterrent...
John Wheeler: But it wasn’t.
Noemie Maxwell: Wow. It’s that strong
Noemie Maxwell: These were all crimes that are connected with addiction for you. Do you want to talk about that?
James Moody; "Sure, sure. I’m a recovering alcoholic. I’ve been in recovery for a number of years, I think twelve years in AA, I came to the program in Utah back in 92. And so I struggled with my recovery. All my arrests have been related to my addiction.
"I was a teenage alcoholic – in and out of school, in and out of college, always employed. But because of the addiction you would go out drinking, you know, practicing your addiction in your early 20s, really unaware of how bad this addiction is. Everybody’s drinking, your friends are drinking, you’re out drinking in bars and for me it was an addiction. It runs in my family, it runs on both sides of my family. And it’s really destroyed my life.
"So I’ve spent a lot of years in recovery, trying to address this addiction, trying to stop it. And was successful for most of the 12 years. I’ve had some relapses, including this one. I spent the last three years of my life in freedom at Highline Community College in DesMoines, Washington getting a Human Services Chemical Dependency degree and was trying to work in treatment and be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. And that’s still my hope today, as I would still like to have a way to help others.
"This has been studied so much, people know what needs to be done, they’re just not doing it. They’re invested in the prison system as it is. Politicians have never been kicked out of office for being tough on crime. They get kicked out when they let somebody out and they commit another crime. And, obviously, we want the public to be safe, that obviously comes first. But having a person with that monitoring, with good monitoring in a treatment facility in the community I think is as safe as a prison. I don’t see... Most of these people I’ve spoke with, myself included, it’s due to their addiction that they were out there committing crimes. If they ’re not currently using and they’re in a treatment facility they’re not going to go get a gun and rob the liquor store for cocaine – or whatever it was they were doing."
Voice: While Washington was the first adopter of three strikes, were were also a very early adopter of drug court – exemplifying smart-on-crime.
King County Councilmember Larry Gossett and King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg – as well as Satterberg’s predecessor Norm Maleng -- have been instrumental in bringing and keeping drug court in Washington.
King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg; "We would hope that the justice system that we create gives people a chance for redemption.
"And drug court was the first big step there for us where we were able to use the leverage of criminal charges to change conduct. And at first people were cynical about whether you could force people to change. But we saw it happen time and time again. People graduate from drug court and we dismiss the case and they go on to a new life. It’s pretty exciting.
"People who’ve been in the system where our currency has just been incarceration time -- to see now a result coming out of court where people change their lives. It opened up a lot of eyes for us. We’re now celebrating our 15th year this week..."
Noemie Maxwell: 15 years!
Dan Satterberg; ... " ...of King County Drug Court. When we started it in 1994 there were only 12 in the nation and there are now 1,800 courts and ours is 15 years old.
"The same hope I think could come out of looking at some of the people who get a life sentence under 3-Strikes. There are 315 inmates who now are serving a life sentence in the state of Washington under the 3-Strikes law since that went into effect in 1994, ironically, the same year we started drug court. And of those 314, I went through and looked at them not too long ago and about 39 of them were there for nothing but Class B felonies. Only 18 of them, which I thought was a small number, but only 18 of them are there for second degree robberies. "
Noemie Maxwell: All second degree robberies.
Dan Satterberg; "Nothing but second degree robberies. So, it’s a small number.
"And one of my philosophical concerns with three strikes has always been that if the crime is labeled a strike, that they’re all treated the same. So a murder is treated the same as an assault 2 as a robbery 2. A Rape I is treated the same as an Assault 2.
"Where we know from the real world that the conduct that’s underneath those labels can be vastly different. Some of them are very serious crimes and some are not. And we also know that some of the people who are there for some of those street level crimes that were fueled by drug addiction are different people than they were 15 years ago. "
Voice: As Dan Satterberg points out, we’ve learned a lot since 3-Strikes was passed about how to reduce crime at less fiscal cost and at less human cost. But our laws have not yet caught up with what we know.
Faces of 3-Strikers serving 777 years based on convictions for mid to lower-seriousness crimes are shown along with the statistic From Pew Center on the States that 1 in 30 Washington State adults are either behind bars or under community supervision at any one time and that an estimated 1 in 20 Washington state children at any one time has a parent under correctional control.
Voice: Crime, which has been falling across the country since the early 1990s, has fallen faster in states that do not have 3-Strikes. 3-Strikes remains fully funded, draining resources from drug court and addiction treatment, which remain underfunded.
White lettering on black background: Crime fell faster in states without 3-Strikes. Violent crime fell (1993-2002) In California (largest 3-Strikes state) 38.8%. In New York (largest non-3-Strikes state): 53.9%. In all other 3-Strikes states: 27.3%. In all other non-3-Strikes states: 28.5%. (An Examination of the Impact of 3-Strikes Laws 10 Years After Their Enactment. Justice Policy Institute. 2005.)
WHAT WE CAN BUY INSTEAD
King County Councilmember Larry Gossett;
"Practically speaking, as a politician, I would use that money to get at the root causes of crime and violence and social disruption in our communities.
"Here in King County we have begun to invest millions of dollars into programs that get dramatically at some of the problems that lead folks to ending up in King County jail for low-level criminal offenses. Such as drug court. A little over 50% of everyone who enters the King County jail, the underlying problem that led to them creating a violation of public law is because they’re addicted to marijuana or crack or pure cocaine or heroin or meth. And what we’ve done is creating an intersection with folks at the time that they commit a crime and give them a choice: drug court or jail."
Captions (separate for each one, scrolls across the screen as Councilmember Gossett speaks): WHAT WE CAN BUY INSTEAD:
- Drug Court: Over $1 million in reduced prison costs for each graduation class: King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office 5/4/09 News www.kingcounty.gov/Prosecutornews2009maydrugcourt.aspx.
- Drug Treatment in the community: Over $20 in crime reduction for each dollar spent (Evidence-Based Public Policy Options to Reduce Future Prison Construction, Criminal Justice Costs, and Crime Rates, Washington State Institute for Public Policy 10/06 and 6/09.)
- Vocational Education in Prison: Over $18 in crime reduction for each $1 spent (same reference for this item and all following as above.)
- Cognitive Behavioral therapy in prison: Over $140 in crime reduction for each $1 spent.
- Multi-dimensional treatment foster care: Over $12 in crime reduction for each $1 spent.
- Basic or college education in prison: Over $12 in crime reduction for each $1 spent.
- Employment/Job training in the community: Over $12 in crime reduction for each $1 spent.
King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg; Now the criminal justice system doesn’t have a mechanism in place for a lot of cases to forgive and to permit that change. But we’re starting to learn. We’re learning through experiences like drug court that people can make fundamental change and can achieve that even within a prison institution. And for me, when someone goes into prison, and resists all of the temptations to fall into that sort of violent prison ethic and instead is there to better themselves, I find that very inspirational. Some of the gentlemen who I’ve met who had been given life sentences and had no reason to think they would ever get out were nevertheless ashamed of their old selves and wanted to improve themselves, to me that’s very inspirational. And those people deserve a second look.
Stonney Rivers; "I seen myself on television along with the other 3-Strikers – it was a reality check. It hit me then, like. I felt ashamed, you know, looking at myself from a different perspective, maybe in the ways of .. the eyes of society sees me. It was embarrassing, actually, and that’s when I began my growth.
"I took it upon myself to take part in programs such as victims’ awareness, anger stress management, reasoning and rehabilitation – you name it, I’ve taken the course. I’ve done it on my own accord. I wanted to grow and utilize these tools as part of my day-to-day living. And if there was any law change or an appeal I want to be out being a positive member of society. I’m not the same person I once was."
David Conyers: "I’m going to be honest with you. I was bitter for a long time. I was very angry, mad at the world. I felt like the world put me here, society put me here, judge, prosecutors, my lawyer sold me out. I felt like they all put me here.
"But as I got older and I start realizing that it ain’t nobody’s fault but mine. I made the choice. I made the decision to go out and commit crime. I made the choice to lead that lifestyle. So they’re just doing their job. "
Noemie Maxwell: So it helped you to realize that you were the one that...
David Conyers: "Right it helped me to realize that I put this on myself, brought it on myself.
"But it don’t make it right for the system to be as crooked as it is – and unfair to give me a life sentence for my crime. But for the most part it’s: I want to be a better person. Because I know that who I was back then is not who I really am."
Noemie: Maxwell: I understand that people can be in a state of mind that I just don’t get. But what is it that goes through the mind of someone who does that, who robs someone? I’d be interested to hear what state of mind is that and how that changes over time. Does that make sense?
Paul Rivers; Yeah, absolutely. Big time. Absolutely. I think about that.
Noemie Maxwell: You do?
Paul Rivers; Yeah.
Noemie Maxwell: Tell me. Tell me what you think about.
Paul Rivers; "Well, I feel more compassion for people as much as myself now, you know. Being more compassionate and seeing things more on the side of not just me, my selfish indulgences or whatnot. To where I can see the bigger picture. Where I can say it’s not just about me or my drugs. But to prevent it, to say, ok, we got to stop the drugs."
Voice: Washington State Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders concluded in his dissent in Paul Rivers: ’ appeal State v. Rives, that the punishment given to Paul was cruel, and therefore unconstitutional. Paul, whose crime involved no injuries and about $300, received a sentence "grossly disproportionate", Justice Sanders noted, "to even the standard range sentence for first degree murder."
Noemie Maxwell: If you’re released... what would you... do you dream about that?
Larry Fisher; "Yeah, I do dream about that. I would try to better myself by living a clean honest life, you know, instead of having to live in clouded darkness all the time. Cause, like I, say early on in our interview here – I never since I was 16, 17 years old never felt that I had any ... I knew something was wrong with me, you know mentally, but I could never pin point it till I came to this program here and started taking medications for it.
"And I think it all comes with age, too. I was 35 when I fell on this and you know I’ll be 50 this year. I’m not the same person at 50 that I was at 35. My whole thinking is a whole different scenario."
Noemie; How is it different?
Larry Fisher; "Well, it’s different because I know things now with a clearer thought of mind and a clearer conscience than I did when I was, you know, drug induced. You know, when I first fell, it took me weeks in the county jail to kick the heroin. And now at 50, like I say, I just have a clearer outlook and a clearer view on life."
Schawn Cruze; (Read from his letter by Sandra Gadberry: "Please remember that I take full responsibility. I never took the time to think about things. It wasn’t till I came to prison, till Jason was killed, my entire family ruined, till I watched other lives ruined, did I fully learn my culpability and understand the kind of effect I had on society. God only knows what the effects on children’s lives were."
Kaity Strickland; (Schawn Cruze sister) "Like, my mom she had a nervous breakdown and she wasn’t able to comfort me like a mother would be able to – And everybody was so much older than me.
"But Schawn it just seemed like he had... He’s so much older than me but he had years of.... he knew exactly what I felt and exactly what was going on. But he wasn’t there to help me. But he saved my life because of what he told me, you know. It’s not the end of the world. You look where he’s at and then you look where I’m at. I’m free, you know what I mean, and he’s behind bars and so positive. That’s the words that...
"That’s how big of a heart he has and how smart and.. he just ... (head in hands) He would talk to me and try to figure out what was the deeper reason. Because it wasn’t just about my brother. It was about everything. You know my whole family was falling apart. He just helped me find... the good side of me.
"Because my whole life I was pretty much a rebellious teen? I would say I didn’t listen... " (looks at Sandra and Kathy – everyone laughs together.) "Yeah, she agrees!" (laughter)
John Wheeler: Before I was going to be sentenced I was in my cell and I got on my knees and I cried and I asked the Lord to forgive me for what I had done. And I believe He really did. And I’ve been trying to lead a straight and narrow life inside ever since I’ve been sentenced and have been doing this time.
John: I take pride in my work. It means something to me... it’s showed me – it’s brought back my self-worth of what I can do and how I can make a difference in certain areas.
"Now this is a program that Governor Gregoire started – the re-entry program (showing certificate of proficiency)."
Noemie; That was recent, last year.
John Wheeler: "Yeah, $25 million or whatever. Well, this is my certificate of my proficiency from the industries job.
I can take this, thank God, if God is willing that I am released, it shows you here, specialties: inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers ... these are things I can do. I still feel in my heart that I didn’t deserve the time that I received but I’m not looking at the negative part, I’m looking at the positive things that have happened and that I’ve done while being incarcerated. "
White letters on black screen: Senator Adam Kline, speaking at African American Legislative Day 2009 on Senate Bill 5292, which would implement the 2001 recommendations of Washington’s Sentencing Guidelines Commission to remove Robbery 2 from the list of 3-Strikes crimes. Caption: Senator Kline is one of nearly 40 legislators who have sponsored 3-Strikes reform legislation in Washington in the decade 1999-2010. He has been the most consistent legislative champion for this reform.
Senator Adam Kline; "This bill is justice. It’s not just the savings of some 600 and 30 some odd thousand dollars in the next biennium, jail time. It’s also justice. This is about people who are convicted of a crime which, normally, would get them 15-20 months. But on their third strike it gets them Life Without the Possibility of Parole. Think about that. It’s not just that taxpayers are paying to keep people in. It’s that the people kept in don’t deserve to be there for the rest of their natural lives. It’s about proportionality. It’s not about revenge.
When people commit bad acts we punish them. And this bill does. But not out of proportion to the nature of their acts. That’s what justice is about.."
Voice: There have been 3-Strikes reform bills in Washington’s legislature for over a decade. Most propose implementing the 2001 Sentencing Guidelines Commission Recommendation to remove lower seriousness crimes from the 3-Strikes list. White words on black background:
It is recommended that the legislature remove Robbery 2 from the list of offenses that constitute a strike... and examine under what circumstances, if any, should Assault 2 be treated as a strike. (Washington Sentencing Guidelines Commission Annual Sentencing Reform Act Review, 2001)
Voice: This is an important reform to achieve. But more comprehensive reform is also needed.
This law is economically unjust, overwhelmingly affecting people who are poor in a state where public defense is seriously underfunded.
Quote from ACLU 2004 report: "The Unfulfilled Promise of Gideon: Washington’s Flawed System of Defense for the Poor: "The lack of meaningful standards and the failure of the state to monitor indigent defense services has resulted in a checkered system of legal defense with no guarantee that a person who is both poor and accused will get a fair trial."
Voice: This law creates what is probably the most extreme racial disparity in Washington’s criminal justice system. While less than 4% of our state’s population is black, 40% of our 3-Strikes population is Black. (screen shows statistical summary from Washington Sentencing Guidelines Commission 2009 Summary of 3-Strikes sentences.
Voice: In January 2010, a federal court decision (Farrakhan v. Gregoire) found that the racial inequity in our criminal justice system cannot be explained in race neutral ways.. The appellate judges ruled that people in prison should be allowed to vote.
Voice: This law is arbitrary. With all charging and sentencing discretion in the hands of the prosecutor, the scales of justice can easily overbalance away from fairness toward the harshest possible punishment allowable under law.
Let’s consider James Moody’s case. His first strike was an assault with a beer bottle in a California bar. He served less than a year in county jail for this crime. It was a lower level felony in California with a maximum term of 4 years, less than Washington’s Assault 3, a non-strike crime (Assault 3 in Washington has a maximum standard term of 5.6 years). But Pierce County charged it as Assault 1, a Serious Violent Offense with a maximum term of 26 and a half years. It became the cornerstone of James’ 3-Strikes sentence of 777 years.
Voice: 3-Strikes often falls on people who were the victims of crimes as children. But it provides for no consideration of these mitigating life circumstances, nor for any second look when an individual overcomes his history and changes his life for the better.
Michael Hoover and his family allege that Michael’s bonds with his family were cut and his path to drug addiction, to homelessness, and 3-Strikes began, when he was 12 years old and he was repeatedly raped in a group home for boys and no one told his parents.
Noemie Maxwell: The police are interviewing Michael about the assault that he’s been the victim of repeatedly – and the police never tell you.
Dr. Hoover: And he reports it. I mean, there’s a police report that is just horrendous.
Noemie Maxwell: So you have the police reports.
Dr. Hoover: Yes.
Noemie Maxwell: But the police don’t tell you. Nobody tells you. The people in the home don’t tell you.
Dr. Hoover: No.
Noemie Maxwell: The state doesn’t tell you.
Dr. Hoover: The hospital didn’t tell us when he went to the hospital. Nobody did. We were totally left out of the picture.
Voice: In the summer of 2007, after Michael was sentenced under 3-Strikes, he discovered that his family never knew about the crimes.
Dr. Hoover: It when he found out that we had no idea that we didn’t really have any idea that all of that had happened, you know, that – Phhh, it just – the anger just disappeared. That was last summer.
(reading from a letter by Michael’s sister): He is clean now but is not sure he could stay that way if he got out of prison. He does not want to get out of prison at this time... He thinks he should be clean a longer period of time and have more confidence that he’s going to stay that way if he gets out.
Noemie Maxwell: So he’s clean from drugs, ok.
Dr. Hoover He’s also clean in attitude. He’s clean of anger. And that sort of thing.
Voice: Three Striker Schawn Cruze and his brother Jason were also physically abused and neglected in a state-supervised group home later shut down by the state.
Katherine Strickland: , Schawn’s mother (reading from a letter from Schawn): "Yes, there was a lot of abuse. The staff there would use a thing called Slamming us boys if we got out of line. They would do it daily."
(Image of a state auditor’s report showing staff not meeting requirements or providing needed counseling and care and of a newspaper article reporting physical abuse of the boys in the home, misappropriation of state funds, falsification of records.)
Katherine continued: "Our house parents John and Peggy were strange. Peggy was a sexual deviant and John a bully. But I had my lil brother there so we stuck together through it pretty well. They exploited us as far as work went. We logged for them using chainsaws and axes. We were underdressed in over a foot of snow. They got us smoking cigarettes and drinking to stay warm. I started smoking there. They sold us cigarettes to pay for our wages. I don’t smoke any more, thank God. I quite years ago. It wasn’t all bad. I spent a lot of memorable moments with my brother."
Katherine Strickland looking up from letter: "Ok, that’s it."
Noemie; "So that’s when Schawn and Jason were in...."
Katherine Strickland: " Kiwanis."
Noemie; "And you entrusted them to the state."
Katherine Strickland: "I was in prison."
Vance Bartley: (former 3-Striker presenting to a college class with filmmaker Noemie Maxwell.)
Do I have the authority to play God and say that your brother can never get it right!? Do I have the authority to say... that this guy can NEVER CHANGE!" ?
I don’t care if he’s 70 years old! He’ll never change! And that’s the problem with 3-Strikes. Is that somebody has played God and said: ‘You can never change!’ And see, we know that that’s not the case. Because each individual’s different. Some people it takes longer. So that’s what we do, is we run them up that scale. (Caption: Prison sentences get longer with each point assigned for previous criminal convictions.)
"That’s what that was created for. So that each time a guy can’t get it right and he chooses to go out there and commit crime and he chooses to come back, now he’s not doing five. He’s doing 10 or he’s doing 20. But the hope for rehabilitation is always there."
Carolyn Walden; "I’ve been introduced to the Three Strikes law, which I voted for myself. But not knowing what it was. I voted for it as it was advertised at the time. Which was for the very most serious offenders, the most violent, the worst on the street. And that, I’m learning now, is not how it was used. And so, for instance, the young man that assaulted and robbed me. I would not want him, if he did that three times, even if he did it to me three times, I would not want him to have life with no parole."
Caption: Carolyn Walden: was seriously injured by a young man in her community who grabbed her purse, knocking her to the ground. This is a strike crime, most likely Robbery in the first degree due to the injuries.
Stevan Dozier: That sounds very similar to acts of desperation I committed in my past. You didn’t deserve what happened to you.
Carolyn Walden; No.
Stevan Dozier; You didn’t deserve that. And it’s unusual for somebody to forgive in the fashion you forgave. It’s very unusual.
I feel privileged to be able to sit here in the same room and talk to somebody who was the victim of a violent crime. I can’t, I can’t ... I know I was that guy one time. I was that guy by choice, though. I chose to use drugs. I chose to drink alcohol. I chose to hang out in the streets, you know, odd hours, despite the fact I had a home, I had family support and whatnot. The choices I made to be out there put me in that man’s position to do the dangerous things that I’ve done in life. I feel remorse. I feel hurt, hurt inside.
Caption: Stevan Dozier was sentenced under 3-Strikes in 1994 for three second degree robberies. He was granted clemency in May 2009. The judge who sentenced him, King County Councilmember Larry Gossett, and King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg were among those who backed his clemency petition.
A list of 30 organizational signatories to a statement calling for reform or repeal of Washington’s 3-Strikes law scrolls across the page. These signatories can be seen at fix3strikes.org
"Our 3-Strikes law passed by about 70% so it is very popular. But it’s a placebo that somehow makes citizens think they are safer when they are not, and it keeps them from dealing with the issues of crime and violence in responsible ways."
Chase Riveland, Secretary Washington Department of Corrections at the time 3-Strikes was passed into law. Quoted in Trial Magazine, 1997
Fysah Thomas sings with group 12th & Vine: "Come lift me up, off the ground, my arms are tired now from dragging me around. But what do you know about the blues? My mama, y’all, was a rolling stone. She left me lone, to suffer on my own. But what do you want to know about the blues?"
King County Councilmember Larry Gossett: And the other thing on 3-Strikers is that every study I’ve seen – over 90% of the folks that end up getting convicted and sentenced under 3-Strikes laws are poor people. Meaning they lack the minimum resources and contacts that may have enabled them, particularly those that are in there for second degree assaults, second degree robbery convictions, that a good lawyer and good community support would have been able to create other options for them.
And that’s unfortunate. The law is supposed to be indivisible and fair to all. And the poor in our society are disproportionately in our jails. And for that reason alone I believe it’s tremendously unfair that we have laws like 3-Strikes.
Fysah Thomas and 12th & Vine continued: "I’m so tired! I’m getting weak. They try to silence me, before I even speak. But what do you know about the blues?" Instrumental music continues during credits.
Grateful thanks to the 3-Strikers and family members, public officials, grassroots volunteers, artists, and others who appear in or contribute to this film. And to Washington Department of Corrections for permission to interview 3-Strikers and the courtesy and time of staff in scheduling and oversight.
Credits: Guitar and voice on "To my brothers and my sisters": Quixote Vassilakis.
About the Blues: 12th & Vine: Evelyn Fysah Thomas, Drew Fletcher, Greg Floyd, Aaron Myers, Eric Gobel.
Equipment and technical help: Puget sound Commnity Access. With special thanks to Russsell Edwards. Camera / production: Noemie Maxwell. Technical help and several clips contributed by TaJuan Labee and Russell Edwards. Work on this project was carried out for publication on Washblog.com and in collaboration with the 3-Strikes reform campaign of Justice Works.