A second chance for felons - The Denver Post
A second chance for felons - The Denver Post One of the final pieces of legislation that President George W. Bush signed before leaving office was the Second Chance Act, appropriate for a man who originally ran on a "compassionate conservatism" platform. The law seeks to improve the lives and prospects of people returning to the larger community from prison. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2008, more than 7.3 million people were on probation or parole or in prison — 3.2 percent of all adult residents and the highest rate in the world. The aggregate federal and state incarceration expenditures alone (not including prosecution, probation, etc.) exceed $50 billion. So, in many respects, Americans have a vested interest in helping those who err and pay the price — especially non-violent criminals — return to society as productive members and not remain prisoners (literally and figuratively) of the state. It is an issue that should transcend political ideology, too. Liberals, after all, profess tolerance for those who make mistakes. Conservatives embrace personal responsibility, but should also want those who accept it to become contributors to society again rather than just consumers of its resources. And as a religious nation, many proclaim to believe in redemption. I have a vested interest in this issue. I have a pathological gambling addiction that eventually landed me in federal prisons for 25 months in the prime of my life and left my family without a husband and father. I have an unusual record of recovery without relapse during the past eight years. Additionally, I have recovered tens of millions of dollars for taxpayers after successfully settling a health care whistleblower lawsuit. But while I am proud of my abstinence from gambling and my success in uncovering health care fraud my other professional accomplishments during that time are paltry — largely, I believe, due to my felon status.
No comments:
Post a Comment