EDITORIAL:Bipartisanship on prison issue is a positive sign

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore deserves praise for co-writing a bill with Democratic Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally of Compton that seeks to come up with a plan to ease the state’s prison overcrowding problem.

In this climate of political polarization, it’s always heartening to see a Republican working on a proposal with a Democrat. And right now it’s critical that our political leaders do a gut-check and address prison overcrowding as the state faces a court takeover of its penal system.

DeVore wants the state to spend $10 million to $20 million to analyze what the state would need for a prison designed for drug-related convicts. Building it — a separate action that would be required by lawmakers — would cost up to $2 billion. That might elicit groans from fiscally conservative Orange County voters, but the state has to do something. The state’s plan to ship some of its prisoners outside California was recently knocked down by the courts.

It’s always easier for politicians to thump their chests and declare themselves “tough on crime,” and we realize it’s not easy to make the case for prison reform since it often leaves politicians vulnerable to challengers, but overcrowding has become an emergency, and the state needs courageous, creative leadership on this issue.

It makes sense to segregate drug-related, nonviolent criminals from the killers, rapists and other, more hard-core convicts. California’s recidivism rate is 70%, twice the national average, so it’s obvious that business as usual has to change.

It’s good to hear a local lawmaker trying to work with his Democratic colleagues to get a bill on its way to the governor’s desk instead of offering up legislation that has no chance and then complaining that it was killed in committee.