[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 391 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 391

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the State of 
 California should enact legislation to make the State's indeterminate 
   sentencing system applicable to all serious violent crimes, while 
 continuing to provide and maintain any current minimum sentences for 
                              such crimes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 17, 1994

 Mr. Dreier (for himself, Mr. Lewis of California, Mr. Huffington, Mr. 
 Packard, Mr. Gallegly, Mr. Herger, Mr. McKeon, Mr. Calvert, Mr. Horn, 
Mr. Royce, Mr. Dornan, and Mr. Kim) submitted the following resolution; 
          which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the State of 
 California should enact legislation to make the State's indeterminate 
   sentencing system applicable to all serious violent crimes, while 
 continuing to provide and maintain any current minimum sentences for 
                              such crimes.

Whereas the State of California's Determinate Sentencing Act was enacted in 
        1976;
Whereas the Determinate Sentencing Act forces the release of the vast majority 
        of California State felons on an arbitrary schedule, resulting in the 
        required freeing of tens of thousands of violent criminals despite their 
        demonstrated danger to society;
Whereas recent examples of the State of California's failed determinate 
        sentencing system for violent criminals include--
            (1) the release of the serial criminal known as the College Terrace 
        Rapist, who served only \1/2\ of his sentence for committing as many as 
        100 rapes, in addition to assaults and burglaries;
            (2) the release, despite the censure of the Governor of the State of 
        California and the protests of the California Department of Justice and 
        the California Department of Prisons, of the serial criminal known as 
        the Pillowcase Rapist, who has been arrested and released from prison at 
        least 4 times for committing over 70 rapes and kidnappings;
            (3) the release of a man previously imprisoned twice for kidnapping 
        women, who was rearrested for kidnapping and brutally murdering 12-year-
        old Polly Klaas of Petaluma, California; and
            (4) the release of a man, previously convicted of 8 armed robberies, 
        who was paroled and rearrested for cocaine and weapon possession, and 
        who was tried after his release for killing a Sacramento grandfather 
        during a daylight downtown street robbery;
Whereas the Governor of the State of California has stated publicly that State 
        law precludes him from barring the release of sexual and other serious 
        violent offenders sentenced under the Determinate Sentencing Act;
Whereas the Governor of the State of California has called for mandatory life 
        sentences for sexual predators;
Whereas, according to reports by the California Department of Justice--
            (1) the average time served in California State prisons is only 41 
        percent of the average time that offenders are sentenced to serve in 
        such prisons;
            (2) 58 percent of the criminals released from California State 
        prisons commit another crime within 2 years of their release; and
            (3) approximately 39 percent of the violent criminals arrested in 
        California are already involved in a component of the criminal justice 
        system;
Whereas, according to studies conducted by the United States Department of 
        Justice, the typical street criminal commits more than a dozen serious 
        crimes a year, excluding drug crimes;
Whereas the result of the State of California's determinate sentencing is that 
        90 percent of the 115,000 criminals currently incarcerated in California 
        State prisons will be required to be released on a fixed date, 
        regardless of the danger the prisoners pose to society, their prison 
        behavior, their propensity for recidivism, or the lack of a positive 
        parole evaluation or an approved plan for living a productive crime-free 
        life;
Whereas the offenders released under the State of California's arbitrary 
        determinate sentencing deadlines will include more than 38,000 prisoners 
        who have committed dangerous violent crimes, including rape, child 
        abuse, kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, manslaughter, and armed 
        robbery;
Whereas the State of California has an existing, relatively effective, and 
        constitutional indeterminate sentencing system for imprisoning 
        especially heinous and violent criminals;
Whereas the California criminal justice system can easily shift serious violent 
        crimes from the determinate sentencing system to the indeterminate 
        sentencing system, so that the most violent and dangerous criminals, who 
        are judged most likely to commit additional violent crimes, can be kept 
        off the streets and imprisoned until a long-term supervised release 
        program is instituted for the prisoner and the felon demonstrates a 
        reduced propensity towards recidivism; and
Whereas the Governor of the State of California has stated his support for 
        requiring all criminals who have committed certain serious violent 
        crimes to be imprisoned under the State's indeterminate sentencing laws, 
        which link a criminal's release date to the severity of the offense and 
        the prospects for a crime-free life upon release: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives 
that, to maximize public safety, the State of California should enact 
legislation to require that all criminals convicted in California State 
courts of serious violent crimes be imprisoned under the State's 
indeterminate sentencing system, which links a convicted criminal's 
release date to the severity of the offense and the prospects for a 
crime-free life after release.

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