With that being said, Karch and Cravens (2014) stated, "many Three Strikes statues define 'out' as mandatory life imprisonment without out parole, but in some states offenders are eligible for parole after 25, 30, or 40 years" (p.476). The details for Three Strike laws vary from state to state based on the types or category of offense and the number of offenses that prompt the law's use (Chen, 2011). Also, the "strikes" are considered the previous offenses and punishment associated with second and third strikes (Chen, 2011). As states began implementing the Three Strikes law, prison populations started to grow larger, which led to the contribution to mass incarceration. .
The United States has been facing with the popular issue of mass incarceration for a while now. There are many factors that contribute to mass incarceration, with Three Strike law being a one of them. According to Tonry (2014), "the United States locks up seven to ten times more of its citizens than do other Western countries, or that many states spend more on prisons than on higher education" (p. 504). As Three Strike law started to be adopted state-by-state the number of inmates began to grow. In 1994, California adopted Three Strikes law at which the state statute became the broadest and farthest-reaching. From 1994 to October 2005, under the second and third strike provisions of California's Three Strikes Law, over 87,500 offenders had been sentenced and over 7,500 had been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for their third "strike" (Chen, 2008). A large explanation for the high number of individuals that have been sentenced is due to the fact that California has approximately 500 different felony offenses that can trigger the second or third strike provisions into action (Chen, 2008). From 1991 to 2008 prison and jail populations doubled, Tonry (2014) stated, "prisons and jails in 1991 held 1,219,014 inmates.
