A MUCH-NEEDED SECOND CHANCE

The United States now has more than two million people behind bars, a
number that has been rising steadily for decades. But state lawmakers
who once would have rushed to build new prisons have begun to see
that prison-building is not the best or most cost-effective way to
fight crime or protect the public's safety.

Several states have instead begun to focus on developing
community-based programs that deal with low-level, nonviolent
offenders without locking them up. And they have begun to look at
ways to control recidivism with programs that help newly released
people find jobs, housing, drug treatment and mental health care --
essential services if they are to live viable lives in a society that
has historically shunned them.

Texas and Kansas have recently made important strides in this area.
But corrections policy nationally would evolve much faster if
Washington put its shoulder to the wheel. Congress needs to pass the
Second Chance Act, which would provide grants, guidance and
assistance to states and localities that are developing programs to
reintegrate former inmates into their communities.

The states have made a good start, thanks in part to the efforts of
the Council of State Governments and its prison policy arm, the
Justice Center. The center's analysis of corrections patterns has led
to sweeping changes in Texas, where the Legislature was facing a
projected upsurge in the prison population and a projected outlay of
more than a billion dollars to build several new prisons.

The surge in Texas was not being driven by crime, which had risen
only slightly, but by a breakdown in the parole and probation
systems, which were unable to process and supervise the necessary
numbers of released prisoners. Mental health and drug treatment
services were also lacking. By expanding those services, along with
other community-based programs, the Legislature projects that it
could potentially avoid the need for any new prisons.

A similar solution was found in Kansas, where about 65 percent of the
state's admissions to prison were traced to technical violations of
probation or parole, often by people with drug addictions or mental
illnesses. The Legislature has expanded drug treatment behind bars
and created a grant program that encourages localities to provide
more effective supervision and services as a way of keeping recently
released people away from crime and out of prison.

The social service networks that are necessary for this kind of work
are virtually nonexistent in most communities. To put those networks
together, the states need to require that disparate parts of the
government apparatus work together in ways that were unheard of in the past.

It is encouraging that state officials are willing to break out of
the old patterns. But they need help. The Second Chance Act would
bolster the re-entry movement with money, training, technical
assistance -- and the federal stamp of approval.