Prez Obama talks about criminal justice reform with members of Congress and...

This piece from The Hill, headlined "Obama meets with lawmakers on criminal justice reform," reports that talk about federal criminal justice reform is continuing among most (but not all) key federal policy-makers:

The bipartisan group of 16 lawmakers included Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), two rising Republican stars who have backed reforms meant to reduce the number of adults in prison. They were joined by Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who have proposed moderate changes to the mandatory minimum sentences for some nonviolent drug crimes.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the Democrat sponsoring a significant update to the nation's primary law dictating how to treat minors in custody, was also in attendance.

Notably absent from the meeting was Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who along with Whitehouse is the sponsor of a major prison reform bill, and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and who is backing the juvenile justice bill.

Grassley was the only top member of either the House or Senate judiciary committees not to attend. House Judiciary Committee Chair Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and ranking member Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) attended the meeting, as did Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

At a time when congressional Republicans and the White House are at loggerheads over several issues, the meeting was another sign that there is some level of bipartisan agreement that changes must be made to federal criminal justice policies. But what form those reforms might takes remains in question. Some in Congress want reforms made to the mandatory minimums, while others — like Cornyn and Grassley — have expressed a preference for other prison reforms that do not change the drug sentences.

The administration has indicated that it would be open to a range of possibilities. 

As long-time readers know, what I think the Obama Administration has truly "indicated" through its work on these matters for six years is that it is always eager to talk about the need for reform and never eager to spend and serious political capital on actually moving needed reforms forward. There has been serious and significant "bipartisan agreement that changes must be made to federal criminal justice policies" for nearly a decade now going back at least to when the Booker ruling invalidated important aspects of the bipartisan Sentencing Reform Act (and even before that if we focus on the crack-powder sentencing disparities).

I had long hoped that Prez Obama and others in his administration, who at least (tepidly) helped secure passage of the (tepid) Fair Sentencing Act in 2010, could and would get bolder and more proactive on criminal justice reforms once reelected. But it is now painfully clear that Prez Obama and his administration has decided that its political and policy energies and capital should always be focused much more on other (more controversial and divisive) issues like gay marriage, immigration and health care.