“Why isn’t the State Legislature listening to our law enforcement experts? Not one law enforcement agency in California supports this bill – and for good reason. The number one responsibility of government is to protect the lives of innocent families, and this Legislature took a step in the wrong direction today. I fear the early release of criminals will lead to a direct increase in crime rates for all California communities.”
-- Senator Sam Aanestad (R-Grass Valley)
“Opening our prison doors early will only open a floodgate of crime and that’s a risk no Californian should be willing to take. Our top responsibility should be ensuring that cuts within our prison system do not come at the price of innocent lives. Democrats have failed miserably in that goal.
“I am outraged that, with less than 24 hours of review, Democrats have pushed through these sweeping changes to public safety. They have robbed Californians of the opportunity to voice their concerns about reversing the decades-long priority voters have dedicated to successful tough on crime measures.
“Today’s vote will let dangerous criminals out onto our streets without supervision, weaken penalties for crimes and potentially slash inmates’ debts to society in half. Most appalling is a new sentencing commission. This new bureaucracy, which I believe is illegal, will have no oversight or accountability. The commission membership will include a convicted felon and will put our families in danger by dramatically weakening our current sentencing laws.
“Republicans offered common sense amendments to improve this legislation, such as reining in skyrocketing prison health care costs, creating a website to track offenses of inmates released early and providing more oversight to the sentencing commission.
“If this proposal passes the Assembly, the Governor’s veto pen is the only thing standing in the way between the safety of our communities and a dramatic spike in crime. I urge Governor Schwarzenegger to use his veto power to keep our streets safe.”
-- Senator Dave Cogdill (R- Modesto)
“If legislative leaders so badly want to release 27,000 prisoners onto our streets, then they at least should own-up to it and stop trying to sneak them out. “Gang violence is up, law enforcement has been cut, and now we will see mayhem on our streets due to early release.
“Legislative Leaders don’t want their fingerprints on freeing 27,000 criminals so they turn it over to an unelected sentencing commission. Like other states with sentencing commissions, the Legislature must be required to approve commission recommendations or at least have the governor and Senate pro tem and Assembly speaker sign off on each early release. Hiding behind a commission is cowardly and irresponsible. Unfortunately, some innocent families are likely to pay the price of this irresponsible legislation.”
-- Senator Jeff Denham (R- Merced)
“California already has a Sentencing Commission. It’s called the Legislature. It is the job of the Legislature, not an unelected body, to determine prison sentences California felons receive. In our republic we elect leaders to make laws, especially to protect people from harm. I’m afraid my soft on crime, liberal colleagues have forgotten basic civics. California is now a more dangerous place in which to live as the result of this disturbing measure passed by the Democrat controlled legislature today.”
-- Senator Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga)
“The legislature’s action today is precisely why I opposed the unallocated cut to the prison budget last month. Despite promises that no early release proposal would be included in the final package – here we are with legislation that ultimately does just that. This is an appalling abdication of our responsibility to keep the public safe from known criminals and another ploy by soft on crime legislators to keep criminals from doing their time.”
-- Senator Tom Harman (R-Huntington Beach)
"Senate Republicans believe government's first and foremost role is to protect its citizens. Unfortunately, this proposal exploits a fiscal crisis in order to advance a dangerous liberal agenda that seeks to undo successful anti-crime laws.
Democrats should have joined us and fulfilled our duty to the people by rejecting this bill and keeping Californians safe.
The liberal majority will tell you the problem with California prisons is that they are overcrowded. However, California’s prison population stands at 162,000, the same number of prisoners as ten years ago while the state has grown by more than five million people. Yet with citizen-approved measures like 3 strikes, truth in sentencing and 10-20 life, crime rates have been cut in half.
Senate Republicans encourage reform and have shown cost savings are possible without early release of criminals. However, billions of taxpayer dollars continue to be spent on Cadillac health care in our prisons.
Senate Republicans continue to promote strong public safety in California. We have proposed ways to save this state money without putting our communities and children at risk. Unfortunately, these common-sense reforms were rejected in favor of a dangerous liberal agenda."
-- Senator Dennis Hollingsworth (R - Murrieta)
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