Commission coming in California?

Speaking of bills to create a state sentencing commission (Colorado story here), the news out of California should be heartening for those who hope a sentencing commission could help chart a better path for California’s dysfunctional sentencing system.  This article provides the latest state legislative news:

A bill to place state sentencing policy in the hands of a newly created commission passed its first legislative test Tuesday, but not until some of the heaviest hitters in California law enforcement took some meaty swipes at it.

The California District Attorneys Association, the California Police Chiefs’ Association, the Police Officers Research Association of California and representatives of seven other groups all stepped forward at the state Senate’s Public Safety Committee meeting to rip the measure proposed as a major fix to the state’s incarceration crisis.  Mostly, the groups blasted the outlines of the sentencing commission proposed by state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, as taking authority away from the elected Legislature and giving it to a panel featuring a mixture of appointees put there by the governor, lawmakers and the courts….

Romero said she was “disappointed” in the opposition to Senate Bill 110 that was expressed by the police and prosecutor groups representing both labor and management.  But she expressed satisfaction that the bill still passed the committee she chairs on a 3-2 party-line vote.  Romero also predicted successful, if not smooth, sailing as it moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee, to the chamber’s floor and then over to the Assembly, where a similar bill being carried by Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, also is getting aired.