Shane Reams was a troubled youth. He frequently stole from his neighbor's garages, which made his mother very angry. She decided to practice tough love and asked her son to turn
himself in. By the time that he was arrested for being involved in a $20 drug sale (he was the
lookout), he already had two counts of burglary on his record. Under California's three-strikes
law, he received a life sentence because this was his third offense. According to his mother, he
lost hope because of the life sentence and joined a gang during his first several years in prison.
(Eventually, knowing that his mother was campaigning for his release, he later took many
college courses in sociology and psychology and repented for his earlier criminal activity)
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Does the sentence fit the crime?
Does harsh punishment help the person who gets in trouble?
What lesson does the punishment teach?
What other punishment could have been in place to avoid this tragedy?
What could his mother have done differently?
What could Shane have done differently?