Question of the Week and Sloppy Seconds
Is Second Chance Act a Flop?

Before we get started, here's your question of the week: With a few notable exceptions, virtually all of the politicians across the U.S. involved in current scandals have one thing in common: They're lawyers. So, is it fair to ask law schools: If you can't teach ethics, integrity and honesty, can you at least teach law students how to solicit and accept bribes without getting caught? It just might be easier. I'm presently writing the curriculum for the course, which I've entitled "Bribe Taking 101."

Sloppy Seconds: Is Second Chance Act a Flop?

President George W. Bush, on April 9, 2008, as he signed the "Second Chance Act" said: "I'm about to sign a piece of legislation that will help give prisoners across America a second chance for a better life... we believe that even those who have struggled with a dark past can find brighter days ahead. One way we act on that belief is by helping former prisoners who've paid for their crimes -- we help them build new lives as productive members of our society."

Not for nothing is he called "Uncle" Sam. He's that kindly old relative, that dude who'll come bail your ass out of jail when mom and dad are tired of your ending up in trouble -- once again -- due to your own irresponsible (and perhaps profligate) behavior. If it weren't for you blowing all of your own money -- like a drunken sailor on shore leave -- you'd have some cash in your account to bail your own self out of trouble. But since you've got a deep-pockets uncle you can always depend on, why bother to do the right thing?

After Wall Street and the Big Three lined up to put the bite on their dear old uncle in Washington, the states, from Florida to California, also are suddenly discovering how dire their straits are, and are making plans to form their own line to ask for rescue cash. Governors from across the country (our own Ted Strickland included) are beginning to paint frightening financial pictures of catastrophe if our Washington relative doesn’t come to our aid with some big bucks. They’re now all claiming their states are as broke as the Ten Commandments … too broke to even pay attention, let alone pay all of their bills.

And why shouldn’t they put the bite on Uncle Sam? If we, as a nation, are dumb enough to allow Wall Street to privatize profits and then socialize the debt when the bubble bursts, if we allow Detroit automakers to fight tooth and nail to keep us addicted to Big Oil by fighting CAFE standards and then bail them out when they lose market share to other companies that are smart enough to build cars people want to buy, then why shouldn’t states that have been just as irresponsible in other ways be allowed to get in on the bailout too?

What do all of the states now preparing to line up at the gates of the White House, tin cups in hand, have in common? They all, back in the early 80s, bought into the specious prison building boom as a means of solving social problems. Since then California has built seven new prisons and not one new university; Ohio’s prisons are currently so overcrowded that we could construct three new ones (at $350 million a pop) and they would all be filled up as soon as they were opened for business (and conservatives did, indeed, make corrections into a business -- a business that profited greatly at the public expense).

The bottom line is... we can’t “build” our way out of crime and into a safe and pacific society, and the so-called experts know this... but they sure as hell can scare us into breaking state budgets in the attempt.

The neo cons bellowed “Lock them up and throw away the key!” as if there was no costs attached to such blind action, but what they didn’t tell a public too dumb to ask was that one day the bill would come due. Well, guess what? That day is now. California, always a bellwether, is $7 billion in the red and about to slide into bankruptcy due mainly to huge prison costs, and other states are almost in just as bad financial condition as the other shoe drops across the country.

Now the mantra is “Reentry,” which makes a lot of sense. If we can cut the 37 percent national recidivism rate by half the tax savings would be tremendous. Congress, finally realizing the magnitude of the problem, earlier this year passed the long-stalled Second Chance Act, which supposedly will assist with coming to grips with the issue. However, there are two problems: One, the act is largely an unfunded mandate (the meager funding doesn’t allow for much programming); and two, as in so many cases, the right hand of government obviously doesn’t know -- or care -- what the left hand is doing… which results in wasted tax dollars.

Take the case of Florence Daniels. The 54-year old Cleveland native was for years addicted to drugs and the petty forgery crimes that it took to support her habit. However, she had a life before prison. As a young woman in the military she was trained as a phlebotomist. After getting her thinking turned around (with the aid of peer mentors in the Tapestry Program at the Ohio Reformatory for Woman) she exited prison for the final time almost four years ago, and has not looked back.. except to go back into prisons and jails to mentor other women.

Daniels applied for a job as a phlebotomist at the VA Hospital, but when her record came back she didn’t get the job, and was told in no uncertain terms to never again bother to apply. So, essentially, the same federal government that passed the Second Chance Act — which encourages private sector employers to hire formerly incarcerated persons — won’t hire from that same population. And the states, with few exceptions, follow the same practice.

What we have are states that are essentially throwing dollars down a dead-end rat hole by refusing to give people a real second chance (Ohio maintains 359 collateral sanctions in state statutes that block people from employment) and then wanting a federal bailout to continue to pay for the lies legislators told -- and continue to tell -- us. This is worth repeating: Government is telling private enterprise to step up and hire formerly incarcerated persons because it’s good for the country... while refusing to do the same thing. Are we just dunderheads, or what?

The feds were at least smart enough to put some strings on the Wall Street and Detroit dollars, but if history is any indictor, they’ll give your tax dollars to states and then allow them to virtually start a bonfire with your money -- set fire to it -- by failing to require said states to institute reforms that will save billions upon untold billions of wasted corrections dollars. Tell me this: Are you feeling any safer with your tax dollars at work... or are they at waste?

From Cool Cleveland Managing Editor Peter Chakerian peterATcoolcleveland.com
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