Over 700,000 prisoners are released from prison each year.
Most people enter prison with little job experience or education. Many are placed behind bars which are hundreds of miles from family. Think about the difficulty of maintaining a relationship from miles away and behind bars.
Once in prison, most prisoners aren’t educated on how to make right choices – they’re simply warehoused inside a culture of violence and idleness.
Upon release from prison, the person then has to re-learn how to get along in society. Nothing magical happens just because you’re no longer behind bars. One has to try and salvage a relationship with family and friends, find a job and a place to live.
This is where the Second Chance Act helps. The Second Chance Act redirects corrections resources away from simply warehousing prisoners and attempts to prepare inmates for release.
We celebrate your quick and strong response to our Action Alert. Your calls flooded the Capitol and the legislators listened. The House and Senate conferees released their Appropriations Report which containing $63 million for the Second Chance Act.
Here are a few programs funded by the $2.2 billion Appropriations Report:
$63 million for Second Chance Act programs;
$9 million for Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act programs;
$6 million for comprehensive criminal justice reform and recidivism reduction efforts by states, also known as Justice Reinvestment;
$35 million for drug courts;
$10 million for residential substance abuse treatment programs;
$12.5 million for prison rape prevention and prosecution, and other programs.
Justice Fellowship just released a new Justice eReport explaining how the Second Chance Act funds will be allocated. We praise God for this victory and opportunity to help individuals in prison and once released from prison. We trust this restoration of funds will strengthen not only the individuals leaving prison, but that it will strengthen families, and ultimately, entire communities.