NCJ Number
102373
Date Published
1984
Length
38 pages
Annotation
This transcript covers testimony before the California Senate Subcommittee on Law Enforcement and Corrections regarding legislation that would extend the prison terms of violent or mentally ill offenders.
Abstract
The testimony considers the Roos-McKenzie article, which advocates extending the prison terms of any inmates who manifest violent and threatening behavior while in prison. The decision about extending the prison term would be made by the Board of Prison Terms under due process procedures. The proposal is designed to preserve the existing determinate sentencing structure while providing means to protect the public from that small percentage of offenders who are clearly too dangerous to be released from prison at the end of the specified sentencing period. A representative of the attorney general proposes a determinate minimum sentence for attempted murder and attempted assault with an indeterminate maximum sentence that would permit persons convicted of these crimes to be imprisoned for life should their dangerousness continue to be apparent. The attorney general's office believes the determinate sentences for accomplished violent crimes are sufficiently long to protect the public. Witnesses opposed to the attorney general's proposal argue that it threatens to return the indeterminate sentencing system piecemeal. Another proposal favors extending the length of determinate sentences for attempted murder and attempted assault.