TOO MANY DADS BEHIND BARS

ON death row, they're there. In medium security prisons and county jails,
they pine for the weekly visits.

Even in juvenile detention facilities, they have pictures of their babies
on the cell walls.

Welcome to Father's Day in the United States of America.

Behind bars is where you'll find too many fathers who hail from the poorest
neighborhoods and particularly those with a concentration of people of
color, on this day.

And that's where we as a society that claims to despair over the decline of
families and the descent of more children into chaos must dare to go and
find answers to the most pressing and troubling questions facing us today.

We need more men in homes being supporters of their families. Here's how:

The past six months, I've met with some of these fathers, talked with them
about their legal cases, about their troubled childhoods, about their loss
of direction, about their families, about their futures -- or lack of
futures. And I've discovered a common thread to each of these cases, to
each of these fathers, to each of these departures from a stable family.

Drug addiction -- that insatiable craving that leads people to rob, steal
or even kill to get the next high. No matter the cost. No matter the children.

How strong is the hold? Eighteen months ago, Nashville was shocked when a
2-year-old boy was shot and killed as he sat in his car seat. His father
had taken him to a botched drug buy, and the dealer shot at the car as the
father tried to drive away.

Why? For too many of these fathers, the only treatment they've received to
kick this destructive habit has been behind bars. For too many of these
fathers, the only time they've been able to think straight has been in
prison away from the smack, crack, crank and other poisons.

While the Southern Baptists in their official stance can crow about what
constitutes the ideal in families, faith without works to heal the breach
in an increasing number of households is just posturing. Upon the
commonality of addiction in these cases, we must build a strategy to rescue
fatherhood in this country -- particularly in the neighborhoods that need
this male presence most.

The availability of drug treatment where it's needed most must be the
centerpiece of such an initiative.

We're running out of room in this country to incarcerate its fathers. The
nation's prison and jail population has risen to 1.7 million, reports the
Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Somewhere in your community or state on Father's Day, girls in bright
dresses and boys in suits will be tugged by the hand behind mothers to walk
through metal detectors and guards on hand for full-body searches -- to
reach their fathers. Let us resolve to reach these men first -- before they
end up incarcerated -- with drug treatment and other help to free them and
their children from lifetimes of despair and Father's Days behind bars.

Checked-by: Richard Lake