Bush & Second Chances

650,000 Americans are paroled from prison each year. Within 12 months, around half will be back behind bars.

Yesterday George Bush signed into law a long-stalled piece of legislation called the Second Chance Act of 2007, which, as Catholic Charities USA’s press release put it, is an important first step in “reducing recidivism, promoting public safety in communities, addressing the barriers faced by offenders exiting the prison system, and helping to reduce poverty in our country.”

It’s a good bill and could make a real dent in the incarceration statistics that have become a national crisis—- if congress decides to fully fund the thing.

Credit where credit is due, George Bush suggested the concept in his 2004 State of the Union speech when he proposed a “prisoner re-entry initiative to expand job training and placement services, to provide transitional housing, and to help newly released prisoners get mentoring, including from faith-based groups. America is the land of second chance,” said Bush, “and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life.”

Well, yes.

But there was never enough support in Congress to pass the bill until recently. The Republicans ignored it and the Dems didn’t do much better. Finally in the last few months it picked up enough momentum to sail through.

Here’s what Bush said when he signed it:

The country was built on the belief that each human being has limitless potential and worth. Everybody matters. We believe that even those who have struggled with a dark past can find brighter days ahead. One way we act on that belief is by helping former prisoners who’ve paid for their crimes — we help them build new lives as productive members of our society.

The work of redemption reflects our values. It also reflects our national interests. Each year, approximately 650,000 prisoners are released from jail. Unfortunately, an estimated two-thirds of them are rearrested within three years. The high recidivism rate places a huge financial burden on taxpayers, it deprives our labor force of productive workers, and it deprives families of their daughters and sons, and husbands and wives, and moms and dads.

Our government has a responsibility to help prisoners to return as contributing members of their community. But this does not mean that the government has all the answers. Some of the most important work to help ex-convicts is done outside of Washington, D.C., in faith-based communities and community-based groups. It’s done on streets and small town community centers. It’s done in churches and synagogues and temples and mosques.

Very nicely put.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.