even though we regard each life as priceless. Is it too much to pay if we save 100 lives or save 10,000 citizens from the trauma of robbery or rape? Personally, I say we cannot justify not spending the money if we have substantial results to base our decision on. Is a geometric jump in prison population a realistic consideration - yes. Has it happened? No.

At the time the Three Strikes Law was implemented, predictions of uncontrolled expensive increases in cost of an expanding prison population were made. Frankly, I never completely understood the "schools or prisons" hyperbole. Clearly criminals had to go somewhere; they sure weren't going to schools.

"In 1994, critics originally predicted 230,000 inmates by the year 2000 as well as needing 20 new prisons to accommodate those inmates." (San Jose Mercury News, March 2, 1997). Those estimates ranged as high as 260,000 the week before Governor Wilson signed the Three Strikes bill. "The State Legislative Analyst now predict this state won't run out of prison beds until mid-2000." (Ibid.) As of mid-1997, the prison population was 146,500- up 21,000 from 1994. Current growth is 10,500 inmates a year instead of the 19,000 per year originally projected. The 1993 California Department of Corrections projection, made prior to consideration of any impact of Three Strikes was 161,144 inmates by June 30, 1998. The actual prison population on June 30, 1998 was 158,207-3000 less than the California Department of Corrections projection made before Three Strikes was even a consideration in the projections by the Department of Corrections.

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