Washington,
D.C.–Justice reform advocates are
hailing the federal Second Chance Act, which gained final Congressional
approval late Tuesday, March 11, as a major advance to help nearly 700,000
people released from American prisons every year break the cycle of crime and
incarceration and build productive, law-abiding lives.
“The
best formula for reducing crime includes aid for the men and women who have
spent time in prison," said Marc Mauer, Executive Director of The Sentencing Project in Washington, D.C., a Public Welfare Foundation grantee that
has played a key role advising policymakers on ex-prisoner reentry
issues. "The Second Chance Act will
fund much-needed education, employment and treatment services that ease
reintegration after a person's incarceration.”
The
measure was based in part on President Bush’s 2004 proposal for a $300 million
ex-prisoner reentry initiative, a response to the severe US recidivism
problem. According to recent studies,
two-thirds of former prisoners are re-arrested within three years of their
release, and 52 percent return to prison.
Introduced in March, 2007, the Second Chance Act gained the backing of a
broad bipartisan coalition of justice reform, civil rights, religious and law
enforcement organizations and was passed by the House by a vote of 347 to 62
last November. The Senate approved it by a voice vote Tuesday night and sent it
to the President for his signature.
The act authorizes $362 million in grants to state and local
government programs, new "reentry courts," and non-profit agencies to
expand mentoring, drug treatment, education, job training and other reentry
services for ex-inmates. As well, the
act supports early release for elderly inmates convicted of non-violent
offenses and calls for the development of alternatives to incarceration, such as family-based drug treatment for
non-violent drug offenders with children.
“It’s tremendously significant,” says Gabrielle de la
Gueronniere, deputy director of national policy at the New York-based Legal Action Center, a Foundation grantee, “that the federal
government is taking the lead and recognizing that there are thousands and
thousands of people coming out of prisons and jails every day who need services
to be able to reintegrate successfully into the community. We do believe this will be the first step in
eliminating a number of barriers to employment, to housing and to a variety of
other needs” of formerly incarcerated people.
The Public Welfare Foundation’s Criminal and Juvenile
Justice Program makes grants to support organizations working to reform laws
and policies that inappropriately bar ex-offenders from employment and social
services essential for their successful reentry into society. In addition to the
The Sentencing Project and the Legal Action Center’s HIRE (National Helping Individuals with criminal records
Re-enter through Employment) network, organizations operating with active
Foundation grants to advance more comprehensive prisoner reentry policies include the Rebecca Project for Human Rights in Washington, D.C., the Partnership for Safety and Justice in Portland, Ore., Community Legal Services in
Philadelphia, Legal Services for
Prisoners with Children in San Francisco and the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition in Austin.
Mauer of The Sentencing Project warns that this week's
Congressional action, though important,is no panacea. “The overall funding
level for the bill is quite modest given the scale of the problem,” he says.
With 2.3 million people in custody, the US has the world's largest prison
population. Mauer says that advocates will now turn their attention to further
policy changes so that people who have served time will be eligible for public assistance with living expenses and housing until they can get back on their feet. This effort is aimed at preventing ex-inmates and their families from joining the ranks of the homeless while they are searching for work and permanent residences.
As well, advocates intend to focus on doing away with legal obstacles that currently deny federal financial aid for education to formerly incarcerated persons. Some ex-inmates, they believe, could finish college and make substantial contributions to society if they were able to obtain tuition assistance.
In an effort to see that money is not wasted on ill-considered programs, the Second Chance Act includes a provision to create a national clearinghouse to
give local government and non-profit organizations solid information on the
most effective ways to provide drug treatment and other reentry support
services.
