Legal News

Governor's prison plan includes 11th-hour commission addition

By Richard Binder

Governor Schwarzenegger's plan to reduce costs by trimming California's prison population by nearly 30,000 inmates will get its first airing today before the state Legislature. 

If approved by the Senate and Assembly, the governor's proposal would release or divert from state prisons 27,000 inmates in the current fiscal year and another 10,000 in the fiscal year that begins next July.

A provision announced yesterday establishes a commission to review California's sentencing guidelines, with the aim to determine whether some sentences could be lessened as a way to take pressure off an overcrowded prison system.

Any recommendations the commission makes would take effect automatically unless they were rejected by the governor and a majority vote in the Legislature.

The last-minute nature of this announcement has increased uneasiness with the governor's plan in several corners.  Click here for the full story.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on August 20, 2009 (boomark / email).