On a vote of 21-19, the State Senate has approved the "Get Out Of Jail Free" legislation that you can read about below in commentaries from myself and George Runner.  It’s now off to the Assembly where it’s outcome, according to Capitol Weekly, is in some doubt as a number of Democrats are running for office (and would have to defend a whacky sentencing commission that includes, as one of its members, a seat for a convicted felon — you can’t make this stuff up).

Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth (R – Murrieta) responded to the Democrats passing this bill:

“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 that 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.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.