STATES RETHINK INMATE REHABILITATION

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- By insisting that California make rehabilitation a
focus of prison, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is joining political leaders
who think it is time for a new approach to incarceration.

For almost three decades, politicians have belittled efforts to
rehabilitate inmates as ineffective. Led by California, the nation
undertook a prison-building binge and adopted tough crime laws that pushed
the inmate population past 2 million.

Now, with states under persistent economic stress and evidence showing that
most inmates are rearrested within three years of release, lawmakers
nationwide are acknowledging the need for change. There now is broad
agreement that locking up and mostly ignoring offenders has been far from a
cure-all for crime.

With bipartisan support, states small and large are shortening criminal
sentences, restoring early release for good behavior, diverting drug
offenders to treatment and beefing up efforts to help parolees rejoin society.

And in Congress, "Even in stark economic terms, it's become very difficult
to argue that our investment in prisons is delivering a great
result," said Michael Jacobson, who ran New York City's jails and
probation system in the 1990s and wrote a just-released book on
incarceration. "So I think we're at a historic moment when conditions are
ripe for dramatic reform."

Many states already are well on their way, pursuing new approaches that,
while unproven by hard data, are showing promise and thinning out prison
populations after decades of steady growth.

The changes generating the most excitement come under a new label -- re-entry.

Unlike rehabilitation, re-entry reflects a reality about corrections that
often escapes public notice: About 95 percent of all offenders -- about
600,000 people a year nationwide -- will be going home.

Reginald Wilkinson, chief of Ohio's prison system, said helping felons move
from the cell to the neighborhood is simply good public safety.

"I often ask the question, 'Who would you rather sit next to on a bus? A
person who is very, very angry about their prison experience and untrained
and uneducated? Or a person who obtained a GED and vocational training in
prison and is on his or her way to work?' -- Second Chance Act

U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, soon will introduce the
Second Chance Act, which would dedicate millions of federal dollars to
helping former convicts find jobs, housing and treatment for mental illness
and addiction.