Important California report on sentencing reform

Professor Kevin Reitz, a state sentencing guru and the reporter on the ALI’s on-going MPC sentencing project, sends this note about an important report released today on California’s sentencing woes and need for reform:

Check out today’s new report from the Little Hoover Commission in CA (a bipartisan research and policy commission with a good track record for high quality analysis and recommendations).  Among other proposals to address the prison crisis in California, the report strongly supports the creation of a permanent sentencing commission in California, authorized to promulgate sentencing guidelines and sentence revocation guidelines, and to be the research and information center of the California sentencing system. 

From the Executive Summary at iii:

[T]he State should begin a comprehensive evaluation of its sentencing system by establishing an independent sentencing commission to develop guidelines for coherent and equitable sentencing guided by overarching criminal justice policy goals.  This is not a short term solution, but a way to create rational long-term policy. Critics who suggest that a sentencing commission is code for shorter sentences are misinformed. Other states have used sentencing commissions to lengthen sentences for the most dangerous criminals, develop community-based punishment for nonviolent offenders and bring fiscal responsibility to criminal justice policies.

This strong report from a well-respected commission should give a shot in the arm to recent proposals for a permanent sentencing commission put forward by Governor Schwarzenegger and the majority leadership (Democratic) in the state legislature.

Here is some early media coverage of the report from the San Francisco Chronicle. And now here’s more from the Los Angeles Times.