In 1994 California voters approved Proposition 184, otherwise known as the “three-strikes law.” The law imposes mandatory minimum prison sentences for any person who has committed three felonies, the first two being violent. The effect of the law has been an increase in inmates and duration of prison sentences in the California prison system, making California state prisons very overcrowded. The “three strikes” law is one reason that California spends over six times as much money per prisoner as per student in public higher education.