Articles & NewsNovember 25, 2008 States want Second Chance Act funded
With correctional facilities around the country teeming with repeat offenders, state and local officials are hoping the Second Chance Act — a federal law signed by President Bush in April to help keep former prisoners from committing new crimes — will be a priority under the incoming Obama administration. The act, which Congress approved with widespread bipartisan support, authorizes $165 million in annual grants to states, localities, nonprofits and religious groups to build programs that help current and ex-offenders find jobs and housing, overcome drug and alcohol addictions, receive mentoring and return to society as law-abiding residents. When he signed the bill
into
law, President Bush called it a sign of
support for the roughly 700,000 people who are released from state
and federal prisons each year. Federal statistics show that more
than two thirds of all those released from prison are rearrested for
serious crimes within three years. That has resulted in surging prison populations — and corrections costs — for many states. Corrections trails only health care, education and transportation among state expenses, costing states nearly $50 billion last year. Despite the new law’s
promise of federal dollars to fund so-called “reentry” initiatives,
Congress has not appropriated the money. State and local lawmakers,
corrections officials, advocacy groups and others now are pushing
the incoming Congress — and the administration of President-elect
Barack Obama — to provide funding, perhaps in a spending measure
that could come up for debate as early as January. “States are very anxious for the Second Chance dollars because of how high a priority reentry and recidivism is,” said Jessica Nickel, director of government affairs with the Justice Center of the Council of State Governments. She said the nation’s economic slide — which has battered state budgets and threatens funding for anti-recidivism initiatives — “makes the need for these dollars a little more pressing.” States “are lobbying hard
for it,” said state Rep. Pat Colloton (R) of
Obama and Vice
President-elect Joe Biden were strong backers of the Second Chance
Act as
The act has won praise
from both conservatives and liberals, partly because it avoids
taking more controversial measures to reduce prison populations,
such as relaxing sentencing laws or releasing inmates early to ease
overcrowding.
Instead, the Second
Chance Act builds on recent efforts in a handful of states,
including
Recidivism has been cited
as a leading factor in the nation’s soaring incarceration rate,
which has hit 1 in 100 adults for the first time ever, according to
a
study released this year by the Public
Safety Performance Project (which, like Stateline.org,
is part of the
In some states,
recidivism has caused severe overcrowding problems. In
“All of the states are
facing huge costs of building prisons. At the same time, states are
in huge budget deficits,” Colloton said. “If you have to spend
another $400 million to add a wing to your state prison, you need
relief.” Colloton cited the
Despite the success of
the program, Colloton said she wants federal Second Chance funding
to help
Dennis Schrantz, deputy
director of the Michigan Department of Corrections, said the Second
Chance Act “is a great opportunity for the new administration and
the new Congress to collaborate with the states” to reduce prison
costs and provide rehabilitation services. He said he is pushing for
Second Chance funding to be used in
But Schrantz also sounded
a cautionary note about the act. Even if the act is funded
at $100 million annually — a figure most experts say is unlikely
during the current fiscal year — Schrantz noted it would only
provide about $2 million per state, if the money is divided evenly
among the states.
Meanwhile, there is some
hand-wringing among supporters of the Second Chance Act over whether
Congress will appropriate funds for ex-offenders at a time when
other interests — from Wall Street to the auto industry — are
pressing for emergency federal assistance. Indeed, some Republicans
in the U.S. House of Representatives opposed the Second Chance Act
because, they said, it places former prisoners too high on the
priority list. “This bill would provide
more benefits to felons than are available to those risking their
lives in the service of the
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