With members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, under the watchful eye of Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), working on long overdue sentencing reforms, a group of 130 former federal prosecutors, judges, and other law enforcement officials sent a letter urging action on the Smarter Sentencing Act.

In May, Gov. Rick Snyder rolled out his priorities to create a smart justice system in Michigan by proposing a series of reforms that have been successful in other states. Georgia and Texas, for instance, have seen significant savings through innovative justice reforms while crime and repeat offender rates dropped.

The House Judiciary Committee announced the formation of a criminal justice reform initiative that will examine various pieces of legislation that would address issues including over-criminalization, sentencing reform, and prison reform.

There is significant transpartisan movement in the United States Senate to bring long overdue reforms to the justice system. A number of bills have already been introduced, including measures that would reform civil asset forfeiture statutes (FAIR Act), address mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent low-level offenders (Smarter Sentencing Act), and expungement or sealing the records of nonviolent offenders (REDEEM Act).

Although Governor Larry Hogan recently missed an incredible opportunity to reform Maryland’s awful civil asset forfeiture laws, he is looking to redeem himself with sentencing reform.

Over the last several years, many states, particularly where Republicans are in control, have looked for ways to get smarter on how they approach corrections. These states, such as Texas and Georgia, have seen tremendous success, and others are taking notice. Congress, however, has been slow to act on justice reform, even as the costs to taxpayers continues to grow due to the bad policies of the past.

The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, as well as the largest prison population anywhere on Earth. With all those people locked away, one would hope that the streets would be pretty safe for the rest of us. Yet in many parts of the country, crime rates remain high, leading some to question whether putting so many people in prison is actually making us any safer.

The United States' criminal justice system is so terribly broken that it resembles "socialism with restrained mobility," says one House Republican, and it's imperative that Congress act now to begin to address the skyrocketing costs of incarceration.

Two of the United States Senate's most dynamic personalities are renewing their legislative push to end racial disparities in the criminal justice system and give a second chance to nonviolent offenders through sentencing reform.