The article mentions what the Three strikes law actually says : "Under the ballot initiative, anyone who had committed two serious felonies would effectively b

The article mentions what the Three strikes law actually says : "Under the ballot initiative, anyone who had committed two serious felonies would effectively be sentenced to jail for life upon being convicted of a third crime." So the reason for this "socks stealer" getting imprisoned for life is a) 2 violent crimes, using weapons (> 30 years back) b) stealing socks Not saying it somehow means the punishment is justified, but ... slightly more nuanced than the article's view. This is my general observation of America : nothing in America is forgiven. Any minor crime, quite literally even (a conviction for) jaywalking will massively impact your life (specifically your employment chances). You can buy your way out of most tickets and not doing so is a serious life-altering mistake. This is combined with only sporadic enforcement, meaning that effectively the people affected by this are random : nearly everybody jaywalks, 10 San Franciscans are convicted for it on a yearly basis, and find out the consequences are huge. Once convicted, your chances for employment go down an order of magnitude, and this is not the state's doing. It is companies, but not as a matter of policy, it is regular Americans. In other words: the people on the street are doing it too themselves. It is almost as bad as the situation in muslim countries, except of course that thankfully the US state won't mutilate anyone on purpose.