The way
the legal system in
California operates against those who infract upon their legal codes of conduct. If you
break the law once, you get a normal to lenient sentencing, the second time you of course get a little tougher a sentence, however the way this works is that if you are caught breaking the law a third time. you go to jail for life. This is supposed to be a decentive to breaking the law, however what it manages to do is catch those in susceptable
social conditions and condemn their lives without any consideration to the conditions that created their need to break the laws in the first place.
It has been said some people have gone to
jail forever just because they stole a
snickers bar. It just happening to be the 3rd one they've stolen in their lifetime with the bad habit of
kleptomania.
This creates not a civilized society, but one in a severe
military state that enslaves those less fortunate. I suppose this is better than
Sun Tzu's suggestion of killing any who disobey the King.