The California Senate voted 21-19, the bare minimum, for the prison plan noted this morning, reports AP. No word yet on the Assembly. Update: "The Assembly adjourned at midnight Thursday without approving a Senate-passed plan to reduce the prison population by 27,300 inmates this year and to create a commission to overhaul California's sentencing laws," reports Jim Sanders in the SacBee.
Speaker "Bass' amendments would modify the proposal for a sentencing commission to give law enforcement members more clout; and would increase the amount of potential sentencing credits for prison inmates -- from six weeks to four months."
More law enforcement clout on the commission is okay, but the amendment really needed is to take away the commission's authority to change statutorily prescribed punishments. As noted in this post, when a U.S. Sentencing Commission guideline collides with a statute, the statute wins.
As noted in my post yesterday, insulating the legislators from the voters on this issue by delegation of legislative authority to a commission is unacceptable. A commission to study the problem and recommend legislation or to issue guidelines for sentencing within the bounds of judicial discretion allowed by current statutes would be okay, but that is not what is being proposed here.
Speaker "Bass' amendments would modify the proposal for a sentencing commission to give law enforcement members more clout; and would increase the amount of potential sentencing credits for prison inmates -- from six weeks to four months."
More law enforcement clout on the commission is okay, but the amendment really needed is to take away the commission's authority to change statutorily prescribed punishments. As noted in this post, when a U.S. Sentencing Commission guideline collides with a statute, the statute wins.
As noted in my post yesterday, insulating the legislators from the voters on this issue by delegation of legislative authority to a commission is unacceptable. A commission to study the problem and recommend legislation or to issue guidelines for sentencing within the bounds of judicial discretion allowed by current statutes would be okay, but that is not what is being proposed here.
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