It’s ‘3 Strikes’ or Get Out, Lungren Says in Anaheim : Courts: Attorney general tells police chiefs that judges, prosecutors who don’t implement new law should quit.

ANAHEIM — State Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren told a meeting of California’s police chiefs Wednesday that law enforcement officials, prosecutors and judges who refuse to implement the new “three strikes” law should quit.

“Those who say they will not enforce the law should do the honorable thing and step aside,” Lungren said in an interview after his speech at the Disneyland Hotel.

Lungren said there were only “a very few” in the justice system who have stated that they will not implement the “three strikes” law, which mandates life sentences without parole after conviction for a third felony.

During the speech, which was closed to the press, the attorney general said he also discussed the emerging popularity of community-based policing.

In addition, Lungren cited the work of his “Sexual Predators Task Force,” which on Dec. 9 apprehended a man--with a record of child rapes at amusement parks--just as he was leaving a house with two female juveniles.

Lungren brushed aside concerns about the impact of the “three strikes” law on the prison system.

He said nobody yet knows how many additional cells will have to be built to accommodate inmates sentenced under the law, and he suggested that existing resources in the state’s budget, rather than new taxes, might be able to pay for them.

If significant numbers of inmates are sentenced under the law, Lungren said, he would be willing to consider “geriatric release,” freeing some prisoners at age 65 or older, to reduce medical costs to the prison system.

Lungren said the cost of longer incarcerations for repeat offenders may offset the price of frequent prosecutions, probation and parole. While some critics have predicted longer sentences could create court delays by defendants no longer willing to accept plea bargains, Lungren said that might not materialize.

“We’ll see what happens,” he said.

Lungren also gave part of the credit for recent drops in the state’s crime rate to passage of the “three strikes” law.