How Florida’s “two strikes” law keeps people in prison for life

The number of people serving life-without-parole sentences across the U.S. has soared to 56,000 in the last two decades, according to The Sentencing Project, an advocacy group. Some people received these penalties as an alternative to capital punishment, which has fallen out of favor with many prosecutors and the public. But there’s another reason for the increase: A handful of states have embraced life-without-parole sentences to punish “repeat offenders” — even if their crimes didn’t cause physical injury, an investigation by The Marshall Project and The Tampa Bay Times found.

🖊️: Cary Aspinwall & Weihua Li / The Marshall Project and Dan Sullivan / Tampa Bay Times
🎥: Chris Vazquez / The Marshall Project

#shorts #florida #criminaljustice

[matiaspereyra]

Imagine having such system that makes the relatively fresh victim of a crime stop for a second and say "wait this is fucked up what you're gonna do to this man"

[thewafflegamer]

You know you f$$ked up when the prosecutor is protecting the defender
Edit: how did this comment become heated?

[samgee]

So basically, if you ever commit one felony in Florida you gotta leave immediately and never return

[sillygoofygoober]

bro you know the sentence is bad when the victim goes "thats a pretty freshly baked fuck up"

[erikkennedy]

Florida also has private, for-profit prisons. Wonder how many of those people are being used for cheap labor?

[chillchinna]

After a little research here are details that were not provided: His first felony conviction seems to have been stealing an expensive drill from home depot. He has other convictions that weren’t felonies, but I can’t find much info on them.

He was drunk during the car jacking attempt. Had he succeeded he would have been driving the stolen vehicle drunk, which I believe is part of the reason they were so severe with punishment. He was unarmed during the attempt.

He was offered a plea bargain of 15 years, but he declined.

[oshy]

Remember. Prisoners aren’t free, they’re slaves. That’s why they got rid of things like parole, to keep you in there for as long as possible and make them money, because they know the prison cycle

[robertmartin]

Native Floridian here, I’m very pleased with this legislation. Crime and violence are on the rise, and seeing it addressed so proactively and harshly is a great comfort.

[brambleberryproductions]

Imagine stealing somebody's car and they go "Yeah but isn't this kind of extreme???"

[DrVincentDoom]

Don’t steal my car but even if you did I don’t want you in jail for 50 years 😂

[jaanaiasbjrn]

The punishment doesn’t fit the crime. The people that say “maybe don’t do the crime” seem to miss the entire point. No one is saying there shouldn’t be justice. It should be predictable and fair.

[duskgaming]

Bruh, you know it's bad when the victim of the crime basically says "This is F-ed up what they're gonna do to this man"

[Kinja]

Life in prison is a really slow death penalty.
What is the difference between spending the rest of your life in prison, and spending the rest of your life in prison but it’s an injection that kills you?

[imthisguysotheraccount]

The punishment definitely does not fit the crime, i see why America is fractured when you cannot approach such a topic with empathy and respect.

[davidellis]

We need to hold people accountable for their crimes, and we need options for repeat offenders, but there should never be an automatic life sentence IMO.

[JoonasD]

It suddenly got even worse than I thought, because in my mind a "strike" would've consisted of a "normal verdict", so two strikes would have been two cases, and THEN if you get in trouble you can get that lifetime prison. ... damn. Why does this crap exist anywhere.

[busterblast]

Even if you throw basic morality out the window, the amount of taxpayer money that’s keeping him locked up could have just bought a new car. This is sadistic and illogical.

[jaimeduncan]

It's terrible, in particular, because they did not pass a law mandating policepeople to go to jail 20 years if they plant or fabricate evidence.

[GoodDudeMadWorld]

What's sickening is that we send people to prison to be rehabilitated and reintegrate them back into society but instead separate, isolate, and even worsen their negative traits and habits.

[jaysonstonehouse]

If you don't want to be affected by this law.
Don't be a criminal...
It is really that simple