Legislature Urged to Not Boost Felonies : Crime: Sen. Lockyer cautions against upgrading some misdemeanors. He fears worse prison overcrowding because of ‘three strikes’ law.

Senate Leader Bill Lockyer recommended Tuesday that the Legislature refrain from upgrading misdemeanor crimes to felonies because of uncertainty about the impact of the newly enacted “three strikes” anti-crime law.

“It’s a genuine problem both of fairness and fiscal dimensions,” Lockyer said in an interview. “We’re already worried that ‘three strikes’ incarceration costs could cannibalize other taxpayer programs such as education. So to the extent we expand the number of less serious felonies, we increase the problem.”

He announced the recommendation during a series of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee on bills that would raise several misdemeanor offenses to felonies. Among the crimes that have been under consideration for felony status are graffiti vandalism and abalone poaching. Lockyer is the former chairman of the committee and remains an influential member.

Some Republicans said Lockyer was engaging in election-year posturing to wound the “three strikes” initiative. “It’s partisan, but everything is partisan this time of year,” said Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), who saw her anti-graffiti bill softened by the committee after Lockyer’s warning.

Lockyer said the “three strikes” ballot measure--which sentences three-time felons to 25 years to life in prison--enjoys such strong public support that “this sort of tweaking won’t make a difference.”

Instead, he suggested that the Legislature’s persistent election-year practice of elevating relatively minor crimes to felonies could accelerate prison overcrowding problems expected to be caused by the “three strikes” law.

The measure was signed into law by Gov. Pete Wilson this year, but “three strikes” backers went ahead and put an initiative on the November ballot to guard against legislators tinkering with the provisions.

Lockyer said he does not dispute that some crimes may deserve to be elevated to felony status, but suggested that many others are lesser offenses that should not be counted under the “three strikes” law.

Although some legislators have proposed provisions to ensure that a particular crime does not count as a strike, Lockyer contends that voters’ approval of the November ballot measure would erase such exemptions, making third-time offenders liable for 25 years to life in prison for innocuous crimes. If the ballot measure passes, he said, it would take a two-thirds vote in the deeply divided Legislature to exempt a felony from “three strikes.”