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Inmates at Chino State Prison exercise in the yard December 10, 2010 in Chino, California.

There are 23 other states that have three-strikes laws on the books, but as the national crime rate goes down and prison costs go up, support for these hard line laws is dropping not just in California, but across the country 

Many states are now taking a hard look at whether "tough on crime" policies have gone too far. 

Adam Gelb is the director of the Public Safety Performance Project at the Pew Center on the States.