Prison plan in works

Prison plan in works
Compromise sought in reform bill revision
Neil Nisperos, Staff Writer
Posted: 08/24/2009 08:54:19 PM PDT

State lawmakers on Monday worked to revise a prison-reform bill that last week failed to pass in the Assembly.

Lawmakers are debating and tweaking items such as the implementation of at-home custody involving electronic monitoring, creating a prison sentencing commission and reducing some felonies to misdemeanors.

The bill, which was approved by the Senate on Thursday, aims to reduce the prison population by about 27,000 inmates, which would provide a savings to the state of $1.2 billion.

The new Assembly version would keep about 10,000 more inmates behind bars and save the state $1 billion, officials said.

Assemblywoman Norma Torres, D-Ontario, was one of six Democratic Assembly members who didn't support the Senate bill last week.

"I think that it was a huge effort on (Assembly Speaker Karen Bass') part to go back and regroup and take our concerns and tweak the plan," Torres said. "It's very different. A lot of it is still in the plan. The (sentencing) commission is still there, but looking at all the members serving on the commission makes it a lot more comfortable."

Assemblyman Curt Hagman, R-Chino Hills, who opposes provisions in the bill that would amount to an early release of prisoners, said the bill might return for a Thursday vote.

The Assembly isn't committed to a Thursday hearing or a vote, said Shannon Murphy, a spokeswoman for Bass, a Los Angeles Democrat.

Lawmakers continue to revise the bill
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in order to make sure it has support in the Assembly, Murphy said.

Hagman and Torres said they oppose the creation of a sentencing commission, which would take sentencing oversight away from the Legislature and give it to commissioners appointed by the governor.

"There's no oversight from the Legislature," Hagman said. "The way they arranged it, it would take a two-thirds vote in both houses to overturn any kind of recommendation, and the committee would submit the recommendations by the June break. That's not a lot of time to review. You shouldn't change 30 years of sentencing law and put it into the hands of a commission that can have that much authority."

The bill started as as a corrections-reform package, which is now a Trojan horse for a sentencing commission, Hagman said.

"A sentencing commission saves zero from the state budget," he said. "All the reforms were pulled out, and we (Republicans) put up alternatives that still protect public safety."

The bill comes in the wake of a violent prison riot on Aug. 8 that resulted in nearly 200 inmates suffering injuries at the California Institution for Men in Chino.

Officials said overcrowding was a major factor in the racially motivated riot.