PD Editorial: A rare display of bipartisanship

It’s a rare day when Democrats and Republicans stand shoulder to shoulder in Washington, celebrating a bipartisan agreement on, well, just about anything.

Has that ever been clearer than this week when intra-party warfare overshadowed partisan divisions in the House?

But on Oct. 1, in the Senate, compromise and bipartisanship took center stage. And the subject of this rare agreement - criminal justice reform - is as substantive as the political bedfellows are surprising.

After decades of upping the ante with ever-harsher criminal penalties, liberal and conservative senators endorsed a proposal to reduce mandatory-minimum sentences and to restore discretion for federal judges.

The measure also allows inmates to shorten their sentences by completing educational or rehabilitative programs and affords an opportunity to seal or expunge juvenile records that otherwise might close doors for a lifetime.

“For the first time, we are cutting back many of the most severe mandatory minimums so they apply more fairly,” said Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican and chairman of the Judiciary Committee. “We are bringing real reform to our prisons that give low-risk inmates the chance to return to society earlier, with better prospects.”

This isn’t a done deal, but the ripple effects could include reunited families, less recidivism and savings for taxpayers who foot the bill for the federal prison system.

Gov. Jerry Brown is looking for a similar review of California’s criminal penalties.

As usual, many of the bills sent to the governor at the end of the 2015 legislative session created new offenses or increased penalties for existing crimes. Brown rejected nine of those bills last weekend with a single veto message urging legislators to rethink the state’s approach to crime and punishment.

“Over the last several decades, California’s criminal code has grown to more than 5,000 separate provisions, covering almost every conceivable form of human misbehavior. During the same period, our jail and prison populations have exploded,” Brown wrote. “Before we keep going down this road, I think we should pause and reflect on how our system of criminal justice could be made more human, more just and more cost-effective.”

California shifted thousands of inmates to county jails to settle a federal lawsuit involving crowding and medical care, and voters reclassified some offenses as misdemeanors.

The results have been mixed, according a report this month from the Public Policy Institute of California. It found no increase in violent crime or recidivism rates but said corrections spending has continued to rise, topping $10 billion in the current fiscal year.

Some of the bills Brown vetoed were popular. We editorialized in favor of Senate Bill 168, which would prohibit unauthorized drone flights above firefighting operations.

Legislators will have little, if any, difficulty passing many more crime bills, including another version of the drone bill. Where they have failed, time and again, is in stepping back and seeing the big picture, whether it involves crime or other issues.

Brown has invited them to do so, and he must take an active role, too. It isn’t often that we suggest state leaders look to Washington for inspiration. But here’s one time that they should.