from the bill , Murphy said . But `` it 's not as if we 're giving up on that notion , '' she said . The sentencing commission is a priority for Bass , she said , but the speaker believes she will have more success if she introduces a separate bill to create it . A panel of three federal judges has ordered California to reduce its prison population by about 40,000 by mid-September . The judges acted on the grounds that overcrowded prisons violate inmates ' constitutional rights . The state Senate voted 21-19 Friday to release several thousand inmates early . That vote came after Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg , a Sacramento Democrat , assured senators the public would be protected from the most violent offenders . `` Of course , we want to keep violent criminals off our streets and out of our communities , and this reform package is a necessary step to do that because it concentrates our incarceration efforts on the violent criminals and ensures that nonviolent offenders have more contact with parole officers , '' Steinberg said Friday . All 15 Senate Republicans voted against the bill , arguing
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- California legislators plan to keep trying to find consensus on a controversial proposal that would release at least 27,000 inmates from state prisons . California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger , right , and officials tour a prison last week in Chino after a riot there . The California Assembly on Monday delayed a possible vote on the plan . Lawmakers likely will take up the proposal Wednesday or Thursday , said Shannon Murphy , a spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Karen Bass . `` When we arrive at a responsible plan that can earn the support of the majority of the Assembly and make sense to the people of California , we will take that bill up on the Assembly floor , '' Bass , a Los Angeles Democrat , said in a statement . Bass said legislators continue to meet with each other and law enforcement authorities to try to craft a plan that increases public safety , improves the state corrections department and reduces costs . As part of the negotiations , a provision that would set up a 16-member sentencing commission -- which would put new sentencing guidelines in place by 2012 -- was stripped