One hundred Unitarian Universalist ministers across Massachusetts last week joined a growing chorus of religious leaders speaking out against the Habitual Offenders, or Three Strikes Bill currently in conference committee at the State House.

This bill aims to be “tough on crime,” but instead it is “tough on taxpayers.” At present, only one crime, first-degree murder, mandates a life sentence without parole.  If this bill becomes law, 22 different crimes will force a judge, without any discretion to “make the punishment fit the crime,” to hand down a sentence of life in prison without parole.  Even the California Three Strikes law, which has stuffed its prisons and bankrupted the state, allows parole after 25 years, but not the Mass. bill.

This will turn our prisons into expensive nursing homes, as aging lifers – long past the age when most crimes are committed – grow old and sick.

It costs $47,000 per year per inmate to imprison people in Massachusetts. Medical costs can add $100,000 per inmate to this figure. Meanwhile, our cities and towns are begging for money for schools, roads, and firefighters. Is this really how we want to spend our hard-earned tax dollars?

We must speak out before it’s too late.  Please let your state senator and representative hear from you today!

Nancy Nowak

Trout Farm Lan