the Good Wife takes all the bad aspects of Cook County and Illinois and explodes them a million times. The states that have Three Strike Laws are Texas,Washington, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas Maryland, New Mexico, North Carolina, Virginia, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Arizona and Massachusetts. Three Strikes law, like the court system itself are biased towards minorities and the poor and their only reason to exist is to make sure the for profit prison system is full.

to accurate about Illinois and/or Chicago politics. There is so much that could be written up in a fictionalized but exciting manner.

Politics here are largely about powerful families, in both parties. The corruption and scandal could be explored. Blago could have been fictionalized and used, or Ryan, or JJ. The alderman in Chicago could provide juicy story arcs. This could be fun. Is it even filmed in Chicago? Why not?

As with other movies and series - there probably are several shots - Hancock Building? The Chicago River? The Picasso?

But otherwise are filmed in the studios in sunny California.

I think that the writers choose topics that can resonate with wide audience and apply them to Chicago. The "good wife" standing by her man has been seen all over the country with too many politicians.

Exploiting minorities, church and the media to pursue political agenda, again, can be understood by audience nation-wide.

I think that the old "Blues Brothers" was filmed in Chicago.

The only series currently filming still in Chicago is Chicago Fire (I've seen the crews and trucks around sometimes). Boss used to be filmed here, but I don't think it's on anymore (?). And Shameless films some location shooting here.

current law includes this:
(A) The third offense was committed after July 3, 1980.

so while the whole law is dated as effective much later (2009) the original underlying statute must have been created on or prior to July 3, 1980. and actually the current revision (already scheduled to change come Jan 2018) was effective 2009 so yes Illinois did have a three strikes law at the filming time in question.

as for drifting language, faux pas' of minor nature likely occur daily with grievous error evident of geographic and/or cultural differences showing too often to catalogue despite the industry hiring continuity people and expert advisors. we shouldn't nitpick if the law says "Habitual Offenders" while every red blooded American says "Three Strike Law"

perhaps the writers misconstrue simply because back in the 1970's it hadn't been given the catchy baseball phrase or maybe because it isn't convenient to include a state that doesn't allow a petty theft to become a life sentence (Habitual criminal act applies only to the most dangerous and most heinous of crimes, no misdemeanors, not even those enhanced to a felony due to recidivism, can receive the dreaded life sentence enhancement.

http://countyleaks.blogspot.com/

The point of the episode was not that Illinois currently has three strikes, but that the Illinois Supreme Court was deciding on double enhancement: a matter that might result in a version of three strikes.

Thank you for the clarification, and welcome to DU.