The actual “law” has five major moving parts. First there is the ballot initiative (i.e. Proposition 184), then there is the actual statute that was passed, and then there are three other code sections that identify the types of violations that count as “strikes” against you. Those other types of sections are labeled juvenile felonies, serious felonies, or violent felonies. In 1997 the Wisconsin State Assembly voted 86-8 to approve what many supporters call a “truth- in- sentencing” bill. The bill proposed that convicts should serve no less than 100 percent of their sentences as a get-tough-on-crime measure. The bill also would require prisoners to be under community supervision for at least 25 percent of their prison time after they are released. Wisconsin prisoners would stay behind bars for their entire sentence without any chance for parole. Both Three Strikes and Truth In Sentencing legislation have been advocated as punitive and deterr!
             ence strategies for reducing violent crime within our communities. Three Strikes laws impose long prison sentences for third felony convictions. These laws are designed to curb repetitive serious criminal behavior. Washington State enacted the first law of this type in 1993. Since then, more than two-dozen states and the federal government have enacted three strikes laws. The state of Minnesota doesn't have an official three strikes law, although it does have a law mandating a life sentence for certain sexual offenders who commit a third sexual offense. Minnesota requires a mandatory sentence of "at least the length of the presumptive sentence under the sentencing guidelines" for persons convicted of two or more prior felony convictions for violent crimes. Also, Minnesota's heinous crimes law requires the court to sentence an offender convicted of second-or-third-degree murder to the statutory maximum sentence if the offender was discharged from a prior "hein...