California to expand its packed prisons

California's solution to desperately overcrowded prisons seems simple enough: Expand the prisons.

from the April 30, 2007 edition

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Assemblyman Michael Villines, the Assembly's Republican leader, expressed relief that the deal didn't include a sentencing commission. Republicans "argued that such an approach would threaten public safety," reads a statement from his office.

Critics of sentencing commissions worry that some types of offenders will end up with shorter sentences. Others argue that such commissions circumvent the democratic process by intruding on elected officials' prerogative to write sentencing law.

"Legislatures should be doing this," says Harriet Salano of Crime Victims United of California. "On a sentencing commission, the Department of Corrections and the bureaucrats are sitting on it."

Tombs says commissions typically are made up of stakeholders and experts from across the criminal-justice system and can include victims' rights advocates.

Speaker Núñez noted that another bill addresses the idea of a sentencing commission. But political analysts doubt the legislature will do much else on prison reform.

"The question would be: If not now, when? The legislators and governor had enormous pressure on them to come up with solutions, and this was their best effort. This is where they could reach consensus," says Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan think tank in San Francisco. "It really falls sort of what many hoped would be a more comprehensive approach."

Beyond the question of sentencing, the plan does not address the high numbers of parole violators who are taking up space in prison – something that might be remedied with better parole services. Nor does it add correctional officers to the system, which is short some 4,000 workers.

Even among some of the bill's backers, there is an air of resignation about the deal, that it represents the most that could be done. "We are going to pass this here today because it will not get better with time," said Senate pro tem Don Perata (D) on the floor Thursday, before voting yes on the measure.

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