According to the Austin Chronicle, “The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday voted in favor of the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2010, a bipartisan measure carried by Massachusetts Rep. Bill Delahunt, and joined by 27 other lawmakers.”

Jim Webb (D-Va.) is sponsoring the Senate version of this bill.  Thus far, the measure has been voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committe but has yet to reach the Senate floor.

The Chronicle’s Jordan Smith’s gives this stark assessment of the realities that brought us to the first thorough re-examination of criminal justice policy since 1965:

“The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world – five times the world’s average rate (go USA!) – a disproportionate number of whom are minorities (black males have a 32% chance of serving time at some point during their lives, while white males – a far larger proportion of the overall population – have just a 6% chance of doing time). Meanwhile, the number of people on parole and probation has skyrocketed along with the growing prison and jail population: 1 in 31 adults is on paper with the criminal justice system (most thus ineligible to vote, and barred from funding for educational or housing assistance), a 290% increase since 1980.”

Julie Stewart, the tall, dark and gorgeous president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), is thrilled with the progress of this legislation:

“Today’s vote shows Congress is aware that our nation’s criminal justice system is in need of major repair. We know too much about crime and rehabilitation, about what works and what doesn’t work with regard to recidivism, to continue to mindlessly sentence minor offenders to long prison sentences and inflexible mandatory minimum penalties. The moral bankruptcy of such policies is now being compounded by the fiscal bankruptcy it is visiting upon state and federal governments.”