Great state-focused coverage of federal Second Chance Act

A helpful reader pointed me to this effective and timely coverage today of the Second Chance Act at Stateline.org.  The piece is headlined "States want Second Chance Act funded," and here is how it begins:

With correctional facilities around the country teeming with repeat offenders, state and local officials are hoping the Second Chance Act — a federal law signed by President Bush in April to help keep former prisoners from committing new crimes — will be a priority under the incoming Obama administration.

The act, which Congress approved with widespread bipartisan support, authorizes $165 million in annual grants to states, localities, nonprofits and religious groups to build programs that help current and ex-offenders find jobs and housing, overcome drug and alcohol addictions, receive mentoring and return to society as law-abiding residents.

When he signed the bill into law, President Bush called it a sign of support for the roughly 700,000 people who are released from state and federal prisons each year. Federal statistics that show more than two thirds of all those released from prison are rearrested for serious crimes within three years.

That has resulted in surging prison populations — and corrections costs — for many states. Corrections trails only health care, education and transportation among state expenses, costing states nearly $50 billion last year.

Despite the new law’s promise of federal dollars to fund so-called “reentry” initiatives, Congress has not appropriated the money. State and local lawmakers, corrections officials, advocacy groups and others now are pushing the incoming Congress — and the administration of President-elect Barack Obama — to provide funding, perhaps in a spending measure that could come up for debate as early as January.