DEMOCRAT SENTENCING MEASURE DEFEATED IN STATE ASSEMBLY

SACRAMENTO - Assembly Republicans helped defeat legislation during today's session that would have created a new California Sentencing Commission with broad powers to change mandatory sentencing laws, without a vote of the Legislature. Republicans said it would have been a serious threat to the public safety of all Californians. 

"As state lawmakers, it is our responsibility to maintain a commitment to public safety, to protect California's hard-working families from dangerous criminals," said Assembly Public Safety Committee Vice Chair Greg Aghazarian, R-Stockton. "By defeating this measure, we are ensuring justice is served for crime victims and their families, and that criminals will receive appropriate punishment for their crimes."

Senate Bill 110 by Senator Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, would have established a new California Sentencing Commission, which would have been given early-unchecked powers to alter the state's mandatory sentencing laws, without little input from the Legislature.

Republicans argued that SB 110 was an unconstitutional threat to public safety that could lead to the weakening of tough-on-crime public safety laws like "One Strike" and 10-20-Life, which have made a difference in lowering the violent crime rate by more than 50 percent over the past decade.  

GOP lawmakers successfully argued that the commission would have potentially eliminated consideration of a criminal's prior record at sentencing altogether, and said that SB 110 would have imposed limitations on a judge's ability to look at a defendant's criminal history, requiring first-time offenders to be treated similarly to those who have lengthy records.

"This bill was not about comprehensive reform, but rather selective prosecution," said Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, Chair of the Select Committee on Prison Construction and Operations.  "The Legislature must never abdicate it's authority to determine our state's sentencing laws.  It's not only irresponsible, it's dangerous."

SB 110 was defeated today with Republicans united in opposition to the measure.

More on Crime Legislation Issues and the GOP Response

ROCA - Crime with no Punishment
By State Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman

Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic novel's title, Crime and Punishment, singularly points to one of the human condition's most fundamental realities: when a person commits a crime, he or she is punished. Currently, however, Democrat legislators are working to defy thousands of years of human mores concerning crime. They are seeking to circumvent the legislative process to lessen and, in some cases, abolish punishment for a wide range of crimes.

The chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee, Senator Gloria Romero, is using her Receivership Overcrowding Crisis Aggravation (ROCA) policy to stop bills that would enhance criminal sentences. Sen. Romero established ROCA, unofficially, in early 2007. ROCA has stalled important public safety bills and, as a consequence, will increase California's crime and result in significant damage to public safety. In essence, ROCA is a policy that puts our communities at risk.

Very simply, the ROCA policy works this way: Any bill brought before the Senate Public Safety Committee that could potentially increase the population in our prisons is held until the subsequent legislative year. Thus, a myriad of bills that could have protected our society and incarcerated more dangerous criminals have been left to perish in this ineffective holding tank.

Read Entire Story:  http://www.capoliticalnews.com/s/spip.php?article319

Actions Speaker Louder Than Words for Democrats on Public Safety
By Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines

I believe there is no more important role for state government than protecting the public safety of all Californians.  All the opportunity and prosperity in the world means nothing - if you are forced to live in fear in your own home.

Protecting our communities from dangerous criminals who want to harm our families should not be a partisan issue.  Lawmakers from both parties routinely speak of their commitment to public safety.  This year, my Republican colleagues and I introduced a number of common-sense measures to keep criminals locked up behind bars where they belong. 

Unfortunately, while our Democrat colleagues like to talk tough on public safety issues, their actions tell a different story. 

This year, Democrats went out of their way to put the brakes on any attempt by Republicans to strengthen public safety protections.  At the same time, they pushed irresponsible legislation to weaken mandatory sentencing laws that have made a difference in lowering the violent crime rate by 50 percent in the last decade. 

Read Entire Article: http://politicalvanguard.com/index2.php?id=villines

Holding Public Safety Bills Hostage Is A Disservice To Our Citizens

By Sen. George Runner

In May, the governor signed legislation that will add 53,000 beds to California prisons, allows for the transfer of inmates to out-of-state facilities and provides for enhanced rehabilitation and training programs to reduce recidivism.

While the prison deal is not a cure-all to all the ills that face our correctional facilities, it is a giant leap toward addressing an overwhelming problem that has been ignored for years.

But that was not good enough for Senator Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, who held 17 crime-fighting bills in the Senate Public Safety Committee she chairs under the auspice of having "receivership/overcrowding crisis aggravation" (ROCA) implications.

Holding these bills hostage is an act that goes outside the realm of normal legislative procedures. The ideas these bills represent are left in limbo and the authors are denied the proper peer review and public discussion they deserve.

Read Entire Article: http://politicalvanguard.com/index2.php?id=grunner

Public Safety Not A Priority For Democrats
By State Senator Dave Cogdill
The legislative deadline for bills to be heard in policy committees has come and gone for the year - a natural time to begin reflecting on legislative successes and failures.  Many legislators who started the year with a vision of impacting public safety policy and pushing tough-on-crime measures will have more bills to put into their failure columns, thanks to Senator Romero, Chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee.  Despite the fact that the Legislature approved, and the Governor signed a long term prison solution that will build 53,000 beds in jails and prisons (Assembly Bill 900), Senator Romero has refused to hear bills that would increase sentences and penalties based on her belief that the Legislature shouldn't add to prison time if we don't have the capacity to accommodate the criminals. To date, the committee has held hostage 26 Assembly and Senate bills from both sides of the aisle.

At the start of this legislative year Senator Romero, with approval from Senate President pro Tem Don Perata, created the Receivership/Overcrowding Crisis Aggravation (ROCA) file, as a mechanism to delay any bills that she deemed would complicate the prison dilemma. She reasoned that, in light of California's prison overcrowding crisis and the federal court's weighing in on the issue, the Legislature needed to show the court that it is taking steps to alleviate the situation.  As such, she stated that any bill which would have the slightest potential to increase jail or prison populations would be placed on the ROCA file and held until January of 2008.

...

Read Entire Story: http://www.flashreport.org/special-reports0b.php?faID=2007081010523237

Below is a small list of legislative priorities by the Democrat Party:

Paving The Way for the Early Release of Thousands of Dangerous Criminals
Two especially dangerous measures [Assembly Bill 160 (Lieber) and Senate Bill 110 (Romero)] would create a so-called sentencing review commission with broad powers to undermine California's mandatory sentencing laws - without a vote of the Legislature.  This could lead to the early release of tens of thousands of serious and repeat criminals into communities across the state.

• Our elected officials and the people of California should make the determination on sentencing and enforcement, not some liberal Democrat review commission.
• This is just another liberal Democrat plan to release tens of thousands of convicts into our streets.
• It seems like the weak on crime label continues to be a fitting description of the Democrat majority.
• Tough on crime does not begin or end with the early release of tens of thousands of serious and repeat criminals.
• At a time when street gangs have overrun some of our communities, proposing the early release of tens of thousands of serious and repeat criminals, will make us hostages in our own homes.

Condoms for Criminals
Assembly Bill 1334 (Swanson) would require the state of California to spend upward of $500,000 a year to the distribution of condoms to prisoners; even though sexual activity between inmates is against the law. 

• With increasing traffic congestion, a substandard K-12 system, increased cost of living, and higher food prices, spending half a million dollars to provide condoms to convicts seems like a misguided priority.
• California Democrats should focus their efforts on combating gang violence, not on providing convicts with half a million dollars in condoms.
• Spending priorities should be focused on improving our schools, increasing access to health care, and fighting crime, not on programs that gives California convicts half a million dollars in condoms.
• Condoms for convicts- it a jail not a fraternity house.
• Democrats are looking to spend half a million dollars on activities that are already deemed illegal, how about spending that money on our children and the poor?
• As some people go hungry, it is nice to know that California Democrats have chosen to spend half a million dollars on condoms for convicts- misguided priorities.

Food Stamps to Criminal Felons
Assembly Bill 508 (Swanson) would allow convicted drug felons and drug dealers to receive food stamps once they are back out on the streets, without any provision requiring drug treatment or testing as a condition of receiving this benefit. 

• While food stamps are intending to help those down on their luck, providing convicted drug felons and dealers with food stamps without conditions, doesn't make much sense.
• The food stamp program is supposed to help people down on their luck; it should not be used as a dependency tool.
• Removing the requirement of drug treatment or testing will convert the food stamp program into another free handout program.
• With limited resources, it just goes to show how out of touch California Democrats are with the rest of California.

Promoting Food Stamp Fraud
To prevent fraud and abuse in our government run food stamp program, all recipients are required to be fingerprinted- Assembly Bill 1382 (Leno) would throw out the fingerprinting requirement.  The Governor has vetoed a similar bill in 2005 noting that "it provides an opportunity for increased fraud and abuse without guaranteeing increased participation in the program as intended by the legislation." 

• Fingerprinting should remain a requirement.
• Defending against fraud will ensure that the help goes to those in need and that the vital resources to keep this program are protected.
• With several newspaper articles highlighting the threat of identity theft, removing the fingerprinting requirement will make the food stamp program susceptible to fraud.
• Governor should veto this bill as he did in 2005.

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