It seems to us that the politics of the State Capitol couldn’t be more dysfunctional even if you tried to make it so — and the policy quasi-debate and votes that are scheduled to take place today on the issue of reducing the budget of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation by over a billion dollars are a prime example.
First and foremost, let’s set the table thusly… Liberal Democrats in Sacramento have for decades been applying the brakes to laws that seek to hold individual criminals accountable for their actions. The collectivist mindset of ideologues on the left is that every criminal should actually be 
looked at as a "victim of society" — after all, no one would actually want to violate the life, liberty or property of another — only a breakdown in the social fabric of our society, for which we are all partially responsible, could result in a person resorting to a life of crime. Right? WRONG. This failed idea completely ignores the important principle that every individual is and should be responsible for how they conduct themselves and that in a civilized society, every individual should be held accountable for their actions.
Let’s remember that virtually every major tough-on-crime sentencing measure that is on the books in California has come from either a ballot measure passed by the people, or out of the legislature after being objected to by the "pro-criminal" left who see these kinds of stern measures as misguided, punishing those "forced" into criminal actions by external circumstances. Note the lack of regard for the real victims of these crimes, past or future.
I guess we then look at the budget deal that was recently enacted, where one of the major sticking points was how to achieve desired and needed budget cuts in the budget of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation — the agreed upon target for cuts wre around $1.2 billion. Republicans want to achieve the needed savings by attacking the bureaucracy and waste in the system — and going after those costs that make California, by far, the most expensive place to incarcerate an inmate (a major component of which, by the way, are the highly-compensated prison guards, who are now part of the upper-middle class who enjoy unsustainable defined benefit retirement packages). The Democrats, of course, have been salivating over the opportunity to release some of the "victims of society" that are currently serving time as felons in state prisons.
In the midst of this, the Governor came out with a pretty extensive proposal that, in many ways, would achieve some of the policy goes of the Democrats (a cornerstone of his plan calls for reducing inmate populations through releases from prisons — you can read the details in this column penned for the FR by CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate).
In a bizarre demonstration of the afore-mentioned Capitol dysfunction, the plan for passing budget amendments called for establishing a "goal" of over a billion in cuts from the CDCR budget, with said cuts to be made later. There was actually a brief blow-up in negotiations when Democrats started openly talking about how they would be pushing a plan (the one we’ll see on the floor today) to facilitate early-releases for tens of thousands of convicted felons as their place to achieve the needed cuts to the CDCR budget. Conventional wisdom is that the Democrats backed off on this at the time after getting private assurances from the Governor, whose own proposal was a lot closer to what the Dems wanted than anything GOP legislators would agree to, that he would work with them on a plan that could be placed on his desk by a majority vote.
Today is the day that Democrats will vote on their plan rescue many of the "victims of society" that are convicted felons on our state prisons. Dysfunction being the theme of this commentary, I should note that Assembly Republican Leader Sam Blakeslee is quoted in a Capitol Weekly story this morning saying that as of yesterday afternoon, he has still not seen any of the specific language of what is said to be a 250 page bill that would be a major revision to California’s criminal justice policies. How embarrassing for all of us that once again a deal gets cut by a small group, and then instead of putting out the details so that all legislators and (gasp!) the public can have a chance to review them and give input to these ELECTED officials, the "art of the deal" becomes the goal, and any thought about the flawed process is dismissed.
What is rumored to be in this 250 page plus package of so-called reforms? In order to achieve reductions in inmate population, many crimes that are currently felonies will become misdemeanors. Many of the financial thresholds that are in state law for crossing the threshold between misdemeanors and felonies are substantially increased (you need to steal a lot more to become a felon), and more. We really can’t detail everything because — as I just pointed out — nothing is in print.
Perhaps the most egregious policy proposal that is apparently included in this liberal pro-criminal dream package is the creation of a "Sentencing Commission" — made up entirely of unelected appointees — who would be responsible for revamping sentencing guidelines for California (translation — a group, unaccountable to voters, who would reduce the tough-on-crime sentencing guidelines that currently exist). The Governor should be rejecting this commission, which so far as is known, was never part of any budget deal. It is rumored that he likes it because the Governor would appoint the bulk of the group — subject to confirmation, of course, by the liberal majority in the State Senate.
This whole situation is tragic because there are truly no winners (except the criminals that get freed, I suppose) — the long term costs associated with the criminal acts that will invariably be committed both by many of those released early from prison will be high — and we are not just talking about financial costs – people will be hurt, or worse. But let us also not forget the opportunity costs — as releasing inmates takes the pressure off of the state legislature to actually bring down the sky-high costs of incarcerating each California prisoner.
Members of the legislature should today be voting against any proposed legislation on the grounds that there has not been any meaningful public vetting of the final language. That is an elitist way to run state government, and it is just wrong.
Assuming that the rumors of what is in this package actually end up being what is in the printed version, then it is still an easy call to vote NO.
The core function of government in America, at every level, is the protection of the lives, liberty and happiness of the people. These proposals fly in the face of this mandate. If they are passed, and signed into law, California will become a more dangerous place to live.
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