California to review sentencing

California's corrections secretary said Friday that the state will create a commission to review sentencing guidelines for felons, potentially a key step in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's efforts to relieve prison overcrowding.

Changes could give judges and parole officers greater discretion and lead to some offenders being released sooner than they would be under current law, Secretary James Tilton told The Associated Press.

The proposal comes five days after a federal judge gave Schwarzenegger a June deadline to ease overcrowding in the nation's largest state prison system, where more than 173,000 inmates live in space designed for fewer than 100,000.

Failure to do so could lead the federal courts to order remedies that include the early release of inmates.

Schwarzenegger has endorsed the sentencing commission as he prepares to ask lawmakers next month to approve building space for more than 35,000 new prison beds, Tilton said.

The commission's makeup, when it might be formed and what authority it would have to change state law have yet to be determined, Tilton said. The panel should include experts from academia and law enforcement who would consider sentences and parole relative to each criminal's risk to society, he said.

Since 1977, California has used what is called a determinate sentencing system, in which terms for incarceration are relatively fixed. Judges have some leeway based on the nature of the crime and the criminal's history.

Lawmakers and voters have added longer sentences since then through measures such as the "three-strikes" law for repeat offenders. In November, California voters approved stiffer penalties for sex offenders.

To begin easing crowding immediately, the administration has signed contracts to move 2,260 inmates to private prisons in Arizona, Indiana, Oklahoma and Tennessee. The union representing prison guards is challenging the transfers in court, and Tilton said he is having trouble finding inmates who will volunteer to be shipped out of state.

Eighty inmates have been sent to Tennessee, and about 600 are waiting to be transferred.