600,000 Inmates are Coming Home to Our Neighborhoods This Year: Is America Prepared?

Restorative Justice Expert Offers Blueprint for Prisoners' Successful Return to Society as Second Chance Act of 2004 is Introduced Today

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 23, 2004—"We know from long experience that if [released offenders] can't find work, or a home, or help, they are much more likely to commit more crimes and return to prison."
-President George W. Bush during his State of the Union message in January 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 23, 2004-Some 600,000 inmates will be released from America's prisons this year on probation or parole. That's more than three times the size of the U.S. Marine Corps-and just as lethal, as most prison inmates get a post-graduate course in crime while incarcerated.

• A recent study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that TWO-THIRDS of these men and women will commit a crime and be re-arrested within three years.

Finally something is being done to prepare inmates to safely and successfully return to our communities. Prison Fellowship vice president Pat Nolan has spent countless hours over the past year working with colleagues, federal officials, and congressmen to create a blueprint to help America solve the immense social problem of prisoner recidivism.

Nolan's efforts have contributed to the Second Chance Act of 2004 introduced in Congress today. As the former Republican Leader of the California State Assembly and as former federal prisoner number 06833-097, Nolan has seen the toll this repeated cycle of crime can take on human lives and on our nation's economic and social stability. His experience led him to write the new book, When Prisoners Return, available Aug. 9. Both the new legislation and When Prisoners Return offer solutions to the social ills created by decades of sending prisoners home with little preparation.

"[Past] policies have harmed too many victims, destroyed too many families, overwhelmed too many communities, and wasted too many lives as they repeat the cycle of arrest, incarceration, release, and re-arrest," said Nolan. "These men and women, an average of more than 1,600 offenders per day, are coming out of prison, like it or not, and it is important that the government enlist the faith community to ‘meet them at the gate' and walk with them as they take those first difficult steps in freedom."

At the Administration's request, Nolan worked with legislators to craft a bill that answers the President's call for practical, proactive strategies for prisoner re-entry. The Second Chance Act of 2004 addresses such critical issues as ex-offender housing, ongoing substance abuse/mental health services, jobs/education, family services, and parenting training, among other things. 

Working in tandem with the legislation, Nolan's new book provides invaluable resources for communities to help prisoners become healthy, productive, law-abiding members of society. The community strategies outlined in When Prisoners Return rely on a faith-based approach and address why America should care and how people of faith can help. When Prisoners Return (available Aug. 9 for $9.95) will be available on Amazon.com or at www.PrisonFellowship.org.

Pat Nolan is vice president of Prison Fellowship and leads the justice reform arm of the ministry. For more information on Prison Fellowship or to schedule an interview with Pat Nolan, click here.

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