From [HERE] Addicted to heroin throughout the early 1990s, Sergio Ayala supported his habit by stealing VCRs, video cameras or whatever valuables he could find in the houses he burglarized around San Diego. In 1995, he stole a leaf blower off a truck, was caught, convicted and sentenced to life in a California prison. The leaf blower was his third strike.

After serving 17 years, Ayala’s now set to be released as a result of a change in California law that was passed back in November. Proposition 36 requires the third strike to be a violent offense, which Ayala’s wasn’t; so the 55-year-old Tijuana native and many other third strikers like him are now eligible for release.

California’s ongoing effort to shed inmates from its unconstitutionally overcrowded prisons (as determined by the U.S. Supreme Court in May 2011) is part of a national trend that’s seen state prison populations drop, prisons close and sentencing laws reformed.