Beneath the big headlines of this legislative session — drilling fights, full-day kindergarten, sex ed and the red-flag gun bill — is an undercurrent of deep political and social change for Colorado.

Quietly, bills large and small are being hammered out in Denver to reshape how criminal justice is carried out. Those pushing the agenda aren’t just the usual back-bench liberals, either.

Thirty years ago, when I started covering politics, any legislation or law that helped criminals was toxic to aspiring politicians. The only good crime bill was one that locked up offenders for as long as possible in the name of safe streets, no matter the price to families, society or taxpayers.

That’s clearly changed in Colorado.

Statehouse rock-star Rep. Leslie Herod, D-Denver, as I have said before, is a future member of Congress, if not the governor’s office. She courts allies on both sides of the aisle and universally enjoys the respect of her colleagues.

Seven of the 10 bills on which she is a prime sponsor this session deal with justice reform. They all appear headed for passage.

Herod is running bills to restore voting rights to some parolees, to lower some drug felonies to misdemeanors and to remove bail costs for minor offenses that punish people who don’t have the money to go home. 

She also is sponsoring legislation that would make it easier to prosecute law enforcement officers for rape when they coerce sex from a person in custody. Herod is fighting to make tampons accessible and free for women in custody, too; it’s a health, safety and dignity issue, she said.

Herod also is working on a law to prevent would-be employers from asking job applicants about their criminal history, a proposal that has failed twice before in Colorado.

“People in these situations need to know that someone, an elected official, is fighting for their rights,” Herod told me, when I asked her why she’s spending her considerable political capital on people behind bars, many of whom have even lost their right to vote.

“I will always fight for the underdogs,” she said.

In the bigger picture, she said, “If these things  through this year, and I’ve pushed the pedal to the metal on these, then we will have made the largest reforms in Colorado history.”

Not everyone in the fight is a Democrat.

The list of Republicans involved has grown. Sens. Vicki Marble of Fort Collins, Bob Gardner of Colorado Springs and Paul Lundeen of Monument, along with Reps. Matt Soper of Delta and Shane Sandridge of Colorado Springs, are all prime sponsors of justice reform legislation this session.

For Democrats, these are mostly social issues. For Republicans, they tend to be fiscal.

The state Department of Corrections’ budget is proposed at nearly $1 billion next year, with potentially $40 million for prison expansion. That’s more than twice as much as the Broncos pay Von Miller just house more prisoners.

A recent budget analysis found it costs the state more than $43,000 a year to house an inmate.

By comparison, the total cost for a student at the University of Colorado in Boulder is about $30,000 this year, including room and board.

Senate Bill 143, introduced on March 20, seeks to parole more low-risk inmates near the end of their sentences. The state currently reviews those parolees when prison vacancy rates reach 2 percent. The new legislation would move that number to 3 percent.

While fiscal conservatives eschew asking for more tax money, finding savings elsewhere in the budget is the only option.

That means taking a closer look at why taxpayers are providing three hots and a cot for people who might  be better served by other programs that actually make them better people.

Sen. Pete Lee, D-Colorado Springs, has been selling this idea for years, first as a House member and now in the upper chamber. He’s thrilled to have more voices in the chorus for restorative justice — the notion of forgiveness and redemption over bureaucratic vengeance.

He credits momentum from the left, including new Attorney General Phil Weiser, as well as Democratic leaders such as Herod and Rep. Mike Weissman of Aurora helping him push criminal justice reform issues.

Weissman’s House Bill 1029 last year, for example, cut the length of parole for Class 2 and Class 3 felonies from five years to three. He argued that those who stay out of trouble for three years are no more likely to re-offend than those supervised for five. Parole supervisors cost more than $6,100 per parolee per year.

Eventually the law is expected to trim $2.3 million from the state budget. Weissman sponsored the bill with former Sen. Kevin Lundberg, a Republican from Berthoud.

“We can preserve public safety while being wiser stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Weissman argued.

Lee said locking people up without good rehabilitation programs is a fool’s errand.

“It’s the most expensive, but I would point out it’s also the most ineffective way of dealing with it,” he told me.

“Colorado’s recidivism rate is nearly 50 percent at $38,000 to $40,000 a year, then in less than three years half of them go right back in again.”

The question, ultimately, will be whether communities are safer — whether lawbreakers are better addressed with treatment than doing hard time?

Three decades ago, tough-on-crime politicians believed differently than they do today.

Time will tell which era was correct, but for now, the momentum is on the side of change and savings over incarceration and spending.