Putting Violence Behind Bars: Redefining the Role of California's Prisons

The Commission embarked on this study in mid-1993 to pinpoint state policies and procedures that could be revised to increase the effectiveness of the adult criminal justice system.

The report's seven findings and 30 recommendations include clarifying and simplifying sentencing in California, creating a sentencing commission to produce a sentencing structure that meets the philosophical goals of the criminal justice system, shifting all violent crimes under the indeterminate sentencing structure, reducing sentence reduction credit for violent offenders, enacting parole reform that will provide a greater deterrent to continued criminal activity by parolees, and reinstating rehabilitation as a goal of the corrections system (subordinate to the goal of public safety).