5 ‘3-Strikes’ Bills OKd by Senate Panel : Legislation: All measures on repeat violent offenders are approved. They must clear another committee before going to the Senate floor.

All five “three strikes” bills aimed at imprisoning repeat offenders for life cleared their first Senate hurdle Thursday, and the upper house’s new leader predicted that the Senate would end up passing them all.

The votes in the Senate Judiciary Committee came at the end of a daylong hearing at which senators added provisions to two bills making spousal abuse count as a “strike,” which could lead to a sentence of 25 years to life or life without parole.

Critics of the “three strikes” concept, and some senators who ended up voting for the bills, said the measures were misguided and called for more prevention. But as happened in the Assembly last month, senators cast aside such concerns and approved the bills overwhelmingly.

“You have got to put these people away,” said Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys), Judiciary Committee chairman. “What else are we to do? There is no other answer.”

“We have lost generations of people to drugs, the streets, and violence. We have lost them,” Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) said. “You’re going to have to lock the key up, and say, ‘Lord, forgive us, we failed them.’ ”

The measures must clear one more Senate committee before reaching the Senate floor. But Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer said after Thursday’s hearing that the measures probably would win passage.

All the bills have passed in the Assembly. If they gain Senate approval they would return to the Assembly for concurrence on changes made in the Senate.

The focus remained on legislation by Assemblymen Bill Jones (R-Fresno) and Jim Costa (D-Fresno). Approved on an 8-3 vote, the Jones-Costa bill is almost identical to the proposed “three strikes and you’re out” initiative that may go on the November ballot.

At the hearing, Mike Reynolds, the initiative’s proponent, said that unless the Jones-Costa bill clears the Legislature and is signed into law by March 7, he plans to turn over 600,000-plus signatures to the secretary of state’s office, which will determine whether it qualifies for a statewide vote in November.

In an interview after the hearing, Lockyer called the Jones-Costa bill and the initiative “overly broad, poorly written and fiscally irresponsible.” But Lockyer, a Judiciary Committee member who voted for the bill, described a political subplot to explain Thursday’s action.

Lockyer pointed out that Rep. Michael Huffington, a Republican from Santa Barbara, hopes to use the “three strikes” initiative in his campaign against Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein in November. Even though Feinstein has endorsed the “three strikes” idea, the measure could be expected to draw more conservative voters to the ballot.

Lockyer said that by defusing the initiative, he hopes to help Feinstein, a fellow Democrat.

“If their goal is simply to cause political mischief for the November ballot, that’s cut off by enactment of the (Jones-Costa) bill,” Lockyer said.

The Jones-Costa bill says that a criminal who has committed two prior violent or serious felonies and commits any third felony could be sentenced to a term of 25 years to life.

The bill lists more than 25 crimes as violent and serious, ranging from murder and rape to residential burglary. There are more than 500 other felonies for which a three-time loser could be sentenced to life, including such crimes as auto theft and repeated drunk driving.

Despite the political support for the Jones-Costa bill, opposition to it and the proposed initiative is building among prosecutors, including Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, who testified against it.

Ventura County Dist. Atty. Mike Bradbury told the senators that the Jones-Costa bill would require that a defendant with two prior serious or violent felonies, who is then convicted of five counts of credit card forgery, could receive a 125-year sentence.

“This is not being tough. This is being unreasonable,” Bradbury said.

By votes of 9 to 0 and 10 to 0, the committee also approved identical bills by Assemblyman Ross Johnson (R-Fullerton). Johnson’s bill, the least detailed of the proposals, states that criminals who commit a third violent felony would be sentenced to life without parole.

The committee approved by a 9-0 vote a bill by Assemblyman Richard Rainey (R-Walnut Creek). Rainey’s bill, narrower than the Jones-Costa measure, is backed by the California District Attorneys Assn., which helped write it.

Rainey’s bill says that someone who has been convicted of a third “violent” felony would be sentenced to life without parole. The bill says someone with two convictions for prior violent or serious crimes who is convicted of a third “serious” felony would face an indeterminate sentence of 25 years to life.

The bill lists violent crimes as murder, rape, child molestation, any crime that causes great bodily injury, arson, kidnaping and several others. There are more than 20 crimes defined as serious, including all violent felonies plus others such as the sale of hard drugs to minors.

By an 8-2 vote, the committee approved another “three strikes” measure by Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove). Umberg announced at the hearing that he was strengthening his bill by making it virtually identical to Rainey’s.

He and Rainey agreed to include spousal abuse as a crime that would qualify as a “serious” felony. A three-time spouse beater could be sentenced to a term of 25 years to life.

The bills move next to the Senate Appropriations Committee, which is supposed to consider the cost of legislation. Whether there will be any firm cost estimates by the time the Appropriations Committee considers the measures is unclear.

The Department of Corrections is working on a detailed--and delayed--cost estimate. The corrections report is scheduled to be released March 1. The Senate Office of Research places the annual cost of the initiative and Jones-Costa bill at $2 billion or more.