Are ‘3 Strikes’ laws really working?

This week’s Retro Report video is a story of how personal tragedy led to what has been called one of the harshest criminal laws in the country, California’s “three strikes” law. Intended to lock up the most violent repeat offenders for 25 years to life, the law was almost immediately embroiled in controversy.

For an examination of the effects of California’s three strikes law, watch the video above. Here, a former Bay Area bureau chief for the Times recalls the case that galvanized the proposition drive for the law.