NEEDED: A FEW HUNDRED GOOD MEN

Guys needed. Nothing against the women who have called here to offer
to be mentors to people climbing out of drug addiction and
incarceration, but we need guys, too. And right now there are about
five women offering to help for every guy who's picked up the phone
or tapped out an e-mail.

A lot of guys, including the governor and lieutenant governor of
Maryland and the executive of Baltimore County, have expressed
support for the efforts to get recovering addicts and other
ex-offenders into the working mainstream. (And if Bob Ehrlich,
Michael Steele and Jim Smith are interested in quietly, privately
doing a little mentoring on the side, they should give me a call.)

A lot of others have derided the effort, in e-mail and in various
public forums.

And that's OK. It's a free country.

But this is what I ask guys who tell me we're crazy to be spending
time on this project: What are you doing about it? Would it break
your back to reach out to a single stranger, someone who's shown some
motivation to change his life and find a job, and give him an
occasional call with an encouraging word?

Trying to get adult ex-offenders, the majority of them men, out of
their dreary cycle of drugs-crime-incarceration-unemployment requires
hard sweat, patience and a long-term view of things. This is not for
the cynical, not for someone with ants-in-pants disease. That's
probably why only a handful of agencies of government and the
nonprofit sector are at work on it.

But look, this problem is costing us big time and has for years.

Did drug addicts and drug dealers cause their own problems?

Yes.

But how long do we dismiss people in the drug crowd because they made
bad decisions or grew up in poor, dysfunctional households with lousy
role models and no character education?

I don't see how we can abide a 51 percent recidivist rate and a
costly war on drugs that doesn't even approach reducing the
addictions that cause the demand. Across the state of Maryland, we
spend way too much on courts and incarceration, public safety and
home security, emergency-room visits, homeowners' insurance, car
insurance - all related to the Baltimore region's nearly 40-year-old
drug epidemic. It hurts our national reputation, too. (And I don't
care what Men's Fitness says about our level of health.)

How long do we keep doing this?

I don't know where the quote came from originally, but when I
interviewed him about these issues last month, Ehrlich used it: "A
fool is someone who keeps doing the same thing over and over again,
expecting a different outcome."

Ehrlich is going to make another push in the coming General Assembly
session to get his administration's offender re-entry program into
more Maryland prisons, and hopefully the allegedly progressive
Democrats who run things in Annapolis will open their minds to it.

What we need is a sweeping break of the drugs-and-crime cycle, a
complete rethinking of how to deal with men and women who take up
space in our prisons - or consume time and money in our probation
system - because they use drugs and/or sell them.

Government and the nonprofit sector need to provide treatment on
demand for thousands who can't afford it, intervene in the lives of
at-risk kids, and help recovering addicts redirect their lives. The
business community needs to remove some of the many obstacles
nonviolent offenders face as they seek employment.

For the rest of us, I suggest the one man/one woman approach. If each
of us - that is, those who never were or are no longer addicted to
drugs, who are employed or retired from employment, who have
knowledge, experience or ideas to offer - connects with one of our
brothers and sisters trying to emerge from the bleak streets, we
might get somewhere.

I have a long list of men between 18 and 50 years of age who can use
an encouraging word, even if over the phone.

So, here's a way to get involved, guys. Give me a call at 410-332-6166.

Women are still welcome, too. But we need a few hundred good men.

Another opportunity

You can also do this: Attend the St. Frances Academy Community
Center's fourth annual Day of Self-Help and Service on Martin Luther
King Jr. Day, Jan. 16. The center is at 501 E. Chase St.

I mentioned this last week and mention it again in today's specific
appeal to guys. This is a job fair set up to connect those seeking
help with those who can give it - either with a job or just the
support and advice that comes from mentoring.

Registration is at 8:30 a.m. There will be classes in resume writing,
interviewing skills and the attitudes and behaviors needed to be
successful in the workplace. At noon, there will be a brief prayer
service and a lunch that brings together job-seekers with the mentors
willing to help them. After lunch, job-seekers get to meet with
employers, program representatives or a lawyer to discuss the
long-term effects of criminal records on employment.

If your company would like to have a presence at the job fair, or if
you'd like to volunteer as a mentor, call 410-539-5794, ext. 30 or ext. 28.

And if you're looking for work, make sure you get there.