[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Bill Cavala
A veteran of over 30 years in Sacramento

Well, now we have it: the solution to California’s budget deadlock as provided by an elite class of “bipartisan” gurus lead by former Clinton Chief of Staff Leon Panetta.

Editorial approbation will soon follow. Then, when the advice of this group of elders falls upon deaf ears and a harsh, partisan budget fight ensues, the proposals will serve their true purpose: a big stick with which the press corps can use to beat our elected officials about the head to lay the groundwork for yet another ballot measure solution.

What are the proposals and why are they silly? Let’s take them one by one.

(1) Out of control costs”. We must, says Panetta, “make sure the state doesn’t commit programs it can’t support”. Like tougher prison sentences? Of course, when a ballot measure was presented to voters just a couple of years ago to save money by reducing prison time (and expense), it was rejected decisively by voters. So the tough sentences remain, as do the costs – soon to be paid for by taxpayers at the insistence of Federal Judges.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Diane Trzcinski
Cab Drollery

Adam Liptak had a terrific column on the burgeoning US prison population in Wednesday's NY Times. The comparison of the US statistics with the rest of the world was staggering:

“The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.

“Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.”

One explanation for the disparity is the fact that the US tends to have a lot of crimes committed with guns, which are easily accessible in the country, unlike the rest of the world. In most states, the use of a gun in the commission of a crime results in enhanced sentencing. But more has to be at work here.

by DFA Staff [courtesy of Blog for America]

Not in literacy,  not in standard of living, not in life expectancy, but in throwing people into jail.  The United States has more people in prison than any other country on the planet.  The New York Times reports:

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.

Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.

Danny
Communications Director

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

There are studies after studies of academics, a Committee headed by a former law and order Republican Governor, and bipartisan groups such as the state's Little Hoover Commission decrying the ceaseless ratcheting up of the years of punishment for crime in this state since we adopted a "determinate" sentencing law in 1976. You can see a stack of them in the picture to the left. California's newspapers have recognized this problem and there have been a number of editorials on this of late.

Republicans have been the main culprits in the thirty years war in this state to prove they are the toughest on crime. Their behavior reminds me of George Wallace, the segregationist Governor of Alabama, a Democrat, who after losing an election early on vowed to never be "outsegged" again.

Whether it is through ballot propositions or the dozens of bills to increase sentences they introduce every year, they try to intimidate Democrats in marginal districts into this game of one-upmanship. They complain of bills being held up in committee if they don't get that way. When sentences are increased one year, they are back next year trying to up the ante. To quote a phrase, "There ain't enough red meat to feed that alligator."