[Pages H12717-H12725]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Lincoln Davis of Tennessee). Under the
Speaker's announced policy of January 18, 2007, the gentlewoman from
Ohio (Mrs. Jones) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the
majority leader.

General Leave

Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous material thereon on the subject of my
Special Order tonight, which is the Second Chance Act.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Ohio?
There was no objection.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Congressional Black
Caucus and our Chair, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, I'm pleased to anchor
this Congressional Black Caucus message hour today.
Let me commend all of the original cosponsors on this piece of
legislation; the lead sponsor, Danny Davis, who's joining me this
evening in this Special Order; cosponsors Stephanie Tubbs Jones, John
Conyers, Elijah Cummings, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Bobby Scott, Hank
Johnson, Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters, and the list goes on. The majority
of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus are signatories to
this very, very important piece of legislation.
The purpose of the Second Chance Act is to reduce recidivism,
increase public safety, and help States and communities to better
address the growing population of prisoners returning to communities.
The bill will focus on four areas: jobs, housing, substance abuse,
mental health treatment and families.
Nearly two-thirds of released State prisoners are expected to be
arrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years of their
release. Such high recidivism rates translate into thousands of new
crimes each year and wasted taxpayer dollars, which can be averted
through improved prisoner re-entry efforts.
The Second Chance Act of 2007 allocates $360 million towards a
variety of re-entry programs. One of the main components of the bill is
the funding of demonstration projects that will provide ex-offenders
with a coordinated continuum of housing, education, health, employment,
and mentoring services. This broad array of services will provide
stability and make the transition for ex-offenders easier, in turn,
reducing recidivism.
I sat here this evening, Mr. Speaker, and enjoyed the speeches by
many of my colleagues talking about National Bible Month. I am so
pleased that they chose that subject matter, and I hope that the many
Members that spoke this evening about the Bible and where it
specifically says ``when I was in prison you visited me,'' they will
remember that their good talk and great conversation about the Bible
apply to ex-offenders and that they will support the Second Chance Act.
It gives me great pleasure at this time to yield to my colleague and
good friend, Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and the
convener of this Special Order. Let me thank the chairwoman of the
Congressional Black Caucus, recognize that 43 members of the
Congressional Black Caucus, 42 Members in the House, represent a basic
conscience that has to craft for America the next steps.
I want to thank my good friend, Congressman Danny Davis. He has been
persistent in recognizing that there has to be a second chance. And I'm
glad to join my colleague and my champion, my fellow champion of human
rights, Barbara Lee.
Let me also thank Congressman John Conyers, the chairman of the House
Judiciary Committee; the subcommittee Chair, Bobby Scott. We worked
very hard on this legislation as it was crafted by the authors and the
staff to make sure this legislation started to move.
Congresswoman Tubbs Jones, I'm very glad that you raised the question
of National Bible Week. As I listened to my colleagues give extremely
personal stories of their life, let me say, as someone who represents
an inner-city district and has spent much of her political life as much
as her personal life in churches, as a Seventh-day Adventist, we are
committed to the teachings of the Old and New Testament.
But in many different faith communities, I recognize that the Bible
is one vessel, one language that speaks to the language of the Good
Samaritan. Many other religious documents speak to it, but it speaks
about taking care of our fellow brothers and sisters. And it's a story
that I love, on the road to Jericho, on the road that addresses the
question of helping others. That is what the Second Chance bill is all
about.

[[Page H12718]]

And I just want to cite that it is designed to reduce recidivism,
increase public safety, and help State and local governments better
address the growing population of ex-offenders returning to their
communities. I see them every day in my community.
The bill focuses on four areas: development and support of programs
that provide alternatives to incarceration, expansion of the
availability of substance abuse treatment, strengthening families, and
the expansion of comprehensive re-entry services. And we held a series
of hearings.
But as we talked about National Bible Week upcoming, this is a
wonderful partnership between faith organizations for people to show
their faith and helping people restore their lives.
I come from the State of Texas. In Texas, there are now 101,916
adults on parole, and there are 430,312 adults on probation; almost a
congressional district.
At the same time you, we have a number of individuals by race. We see
that out of that in Texas there are 40,000, almost, African Americans
who are on parole and some 25,000 Hispanics. This speaks to the crisis
nature of what we are facing.
And so I rise today to plead with my colleagues that one, the Second
Chance bill must move through this House. In the Senate we understand
that we are now prepared possibly for a final conclusion for this to
get to the President's desk.
But I speak from the heart when I talk about the importance of the
second chance. Unfortunately, Jena Six and that situation, it has
become a symbol for not giving young people a second chance. For the
altercation that occurred, a school yard fight, it resulted in an
indictment that resulted in adult time.
In the State of Texas, we are notorious for what we do for our young
people; therefore, creating adults who will ultimately be incarcerated,
and those will be on parole. And so, it is important that we understand
the crucialness, if you will, of this particular bill.
Let me just cite headlines that I'd like to submit for the Record,
because it relates to the criminal justice system in the State of Texas
that really is upside down and, frankly, needs a complete overhaul,
because what it says is more youth are tried as adults in Harris County
than any other county, and really probably any other State. So we're
beginning to move youth into the process of needing a second chance.
And what I'm suggesting, Mr. Speaker, is that more and more the young
people are going into the criminal justice system, and there is a
definite need for a second chance, because when these individuals come
out, they are still young. They're still able to be saved. But we have
nothing but an empty hole, a pit that they fall back into and they wind
up being on the sea of recidivism.
And it says here that 67.5 percent of the prisoners were arrested for
a new offense, almost exclusively a felony or a serious misdemeanor.
This is what happens.
And so, more youth are tried as adults in Harris County. It means
that, rather than having justice, we're concerned about ``just us,''
and so the criminal justice system has no sympathy.
In addition, we find that the youngest inmates, this is in Texas
again, my county, tend to serve longer terms in juvenile prison, making
them the kind of targets, or not targets, but kind of recipients, or
those who would need the second chance, because they are laying the
groundwork for going into the adult system.
I will include these articles for the Record that I'm now speaking
to.

[From the Bureau of Justice Statistics, June 2002]

Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 1994

(By Patrick A. Langan, Ph.D., David J. Levin, Ph.D.)

This study of the rearrest, reconviction, and
reincarceration of prisoners tracked 272,111 former inmates
for 3 years after their release in 1994. The 272,111--
representing two-thirds of all prisoners released in the
United States that year--were discharged from prisons in 15
States:
Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland,
Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina,
Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Virginia.

Four measures of recidivism

The study uses four measures of recidivism: rearrest,
reconviction, resentence to prison, and return to prison with
or without a new sentence. Except where expressly stated
otherwise, all four study measures of recidivism--refer to
the 3-year period following the prisoner's release in 1994;
include both ``in-State'' and ``out-of-State'' recidivism.
``In-State'' recidivism refers to new offenses committed
within the State that released the prisoner. ``Out-of-State''
recidivism refers to new offenses in States other than the
one where the prisoner served time.

CBC FOUNDATION
[Second Chance and Probation/Parole Analysis]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
State Representatives Adults on parole (2005) Adults on probation (2005)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
California.................................. Lee, Waters, Watson........... 111,743 388,260
Texas....................................... Green, Jackson-Lee, Johnson... 101,916 430,312
Pennsylvania................................ Fattah........................ 75,732 167,561
New York.................................... Clarke, Meeks, Rangel, Towns.. 53,533 119,025
Illinois.................................... Davis, Jackson Jr., Obama, 34,576 143,136
Rush.
Louisiana................................... Jefferson..................... 24,072 38,308
Georgia..................................... Bishop, Johnson, Lewis, Scott. 22,851 422,848
Michigan.................................... Conyers, Kilpatrick........... 19,978 178,609
Ohio........................................ Tubbs Jones................... 19,512 239,036
Missouri.................................... Clay, Cleaver................. 18,374 53,614
Wisconsin................................... Moore......................... 15,505 55,175
Maryland.................................... Cummings, Wynn................ 14,271 75,593
New Jersey.................................. Payne......................... 13,874 139,610
Indiana..................................... Carson........................ 7,295 121,014
Alabama..................................... Davis......................... 7,252 38,995
Florida..................................... Brown, Hastings, Meek......... 4,785 277,831
Virginia.................................... Scott......................... 4,499 45,589
Minnesota................................... Ellison....................... 3,966 117,073
South Carolina.............................. Clyburn....................... 3,155 39,349
North Carolina.............................. Butterfield, Watt............. 3,101 111,626
Mississippi................................. Thompson...................... 1,970 23,864
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
District of Columbia, Holmes Norton, Data Unavailable.
Virgin Islands, Christian-Christensen, Data Unavailable.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Native
Parole Black/ American Hawaiian/ Unknown or
State population, White African Hispanic or Indian/ Asian Other Two or more not
2/31/2005 American Latino Alaskan Pacific races reported
Native islander
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Jersey......................... 13,874 2,906 6,679 2,563 19 25 53 0 1,629
New York........................... 53,533 8,770 24,467 18,739 225 312 0 0 1,020
Pennsylvania a..................... 75,678 39,517 28,271 6,022 62 295 3 56 1,452
Illinois b......................... 34,576 10,124 20,386 3,923 30 90 ** ** 23
Michigan........................... 19,978 9,170 10,209 309 132 38 0 0 120
Minnesota.......................... 3,966 2,350 996 319 201 0 0 0 100
Missouri........................... 18,374 12,246 5,665 356 55 37 0 0 15
Ohio b............................. 19,512 9,717 9,580 156 39 20 0 0 0
Wisconsin a........................ 15,505 6,983 6,712 1,209 432 122 ** ** 47
Alabama b.......................... 7,252 2,503 4,670 32 2 8 0 2 35
Florida............................ 4,785 1,940 2,725 105 5 0 0 ** 10
Georgia............................ 22,851 7,979 14,872 ** ** ** ** ** 0

[[Page H12719]]

Louisiana.......................... 24,072 8,519 15,432 4 4 2 ** ** 111
Maryland........................... 14,271 3,617 10,602 ** 13 17 ** ** 22
Mississippi........................ 1,970 847 1,104 11 4 2 0 0 2
North Carolina..................... 3,101 1,096 1,801 126 50 9 1 ** 18
South Carolina..................... 3,155 1,029 2,081 20 8 1 0 ** 16
Texas.............................. 101,916 34,561 39,718 26,920 70 163 0 0 484
Virginia b......................... 4,499 2,144 2,243 0 2 0 0 0 110
California......................... 111,743 34,535 27,825 44,135 897 1,018 193 0 3,140
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Not known.
a See Explanatory notes for more detail.
b Some or all detailed data are estimated for race.

And then, of course, there is this short of years but long in lockup.
This is a statement that talks about 13-year-olds who have 5 years, 6
years, 7 years, not because they are sentenced to that amount, but
because they go into the juvenile system for 2 months, and because the
handlers, the custodians, the jailers pile on more time, more time.
So what point am I making?
The point that I'm making is that we are assured that, with the
ongoing cycle of young people going into the criminal justice system,
that they then go into the adult system, and then we have this giant
sinking hole.
The second chance is to save youngsters and adults from themselves,
and to provide this safety net that provides jobs and training and also
a social system that allows them to not be part of almost 70 percent
recidivism.
Let me quickly just say that I was very pleased to have an amendment
included into this legislation that particularly focused on some
additional needs that we would have and that this bill also takes into
account mental health concerns. This bill is a must.
My voice is gone, but my strength and my desire is here. If we are
biblically grounded in this country, if we believe that there is value
to religion and faith in the Bible and the Koran and many other
documents that exude faith, then we should emphasize the charity of the
Good Samaritan. That finds its way into the Jewish faith, the Christian
faith and Muslim faith and any faith that is here. There is the concept
of the Good Samaritan. That's what the Second Chance bill is.
And as I close, let me indicate that I am still working on this
criminal justice system. It is a broken system. I believe that if you
do the crime, you should pay the time. But where is the mercy on what
the time is and how you rehabilitate people? That's why I'm offering
legislation, the Good Time Early Release Bill that we hope will see
hearings that will allow nonviolent prisoners to be released on their
own recognizance and to allow them to get into this system. It is not a
parole. It is good time early release, because these are Federal
prisoners who are in the Federal system who are not subjected to parole
and a limited probation.
So I'm looking forward to that location tagging this legislation,
because if this passes, then those who will be released will have the
safety net that is so very important.
It dismays me, Congresswoman Tubbs Jones, to see our young people, as
you've been a prosecutor and I've been a judge, you've been a judge, to
see them go into this system with no hope. I wish they were not in the
system at all. But as they go into the system and then they become
institutionalized as adults, then we need to have the second chance
legislation that owns on up to the fact that we are, in fact, our
brothers' and sisters' keepers, we are Good Samaritans, and we must
find a way to save the lives of those who have paid their time and have
come out to help their families.
With that, I ask us to really get this moving, and I thank you for
your leadership.
I thank Congresswoman Lee for her yielding and Congressman Davis and
all those that we've worked with for moving this bill forward.
Mr. Speaker, let me thank my dear friend, Mr. Danny Davis of
Illinois, for organizing this special order on the very important
subject addressing the prison warehousing crisis in this country. H.R.
1593, The Second Chance Act, a bill of which I am an original co-
sponsor, addresses the very serious concerns about the compromised
state of warehousing prisoners.
Earlier this year the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and
Homeland Security, of which I am a member, held hearings to address the
state of certain conditions within the United States prison system. In
one of those hearings, my colleagues and I considered the merits of The
Second Chance Act, and my amendment which I offered in the last
Congress was included in the base bill this year.
The Second Chance Act is designed to reduce recidivism, increase
public safety, and help state and local governments better address the
growing population of ex-offenders returning their communities. The
bill focuses on four areas: Development and support of programs that
provide alternatives to incarceration, expansion of the availability of
substance abuse treatment, strengthening families and the expansion of
comprehensive re-entry services. The Subcommittee has held a series of
hearings on issues relating to re-entry of prisoners and this
legislation dating back to the 108th Congress. Our most recent hearing,
on March 20, 2007, focused on re-entry best practices and the
continuing need for Federal support of re-entry program development.
Nearly two-thirds of released state prisoners are expected to be re-
arrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years of their
release. Such high recidivism rates translate into thousands of new
crimes each year and wasted taxpayer dollars, which can be averted
through improved prisoner reentry efforts.
The ``Second Chance Act of 2007'' allocates $360 million towards a
variety of reentry programs. One of the main components of the bill is
the funding of demonstration projects that would provide ex-offenders
with a coordinated continuum of housing, education, health, employment,
and mentoring services. This broad array of services would provide
stability and make the transition for ex-offenders easier, in turn
reducing recidivism.
I also sponsored H.R. 261, the Federal Prison Bureau Nonviolent
Offender Relief Act of 2007 which I introduced earlier this year. H.R.
261 directs the Bureau of Prisons, pursuant to a good time policy, to
release a prisoner who has served one half or more of his or her term
of imprisonment if that prisoner: (1) Has attained age 45; (2) has
never been convicted of a crime of violence; and (3) has not engaged in
any violation, involving violent conduct, of institutional disciplinary
regulations.
H.R. 261, would address the problem of warehousing in the Nation's
federal correction facilities non-violent offenders over the age of 45
who have served more than half of their sentences and pose no future
danger to society. As I stated during the markup of H.R. 1593, the
Second Chance Act of 2007, I strongly believe that in affording older
offenders a second chance to turn around their lives and contribute to
society, that ex-offenders not be too old to take full advantage of a
second chance to redeem themselves in the eyes of their families,
friends, and communities. I believe setting an eligibility age of 45
rather than 60 will better achieve the goal we all share.
I am also concerned about the rehabilitation and treatment of
juvenile offenders in my home state of Texas as it appears that the
administrators of TYC have neglected their duties. The April 10, 2007
``Dallas Morning News'', reported that ``two former Texas Youth
Commission administrators were indicted on charges that they sexually
abused teenage inmates at the state juvenile prison in Pyote''. The
same article also cited the 2005 investigative report by Texas Rangers'
Sgt. Burzynski which found that the two indicted TYC administrators,
Brookins and Hernandez, had repeatedly molested inmates in the Pyote
prison. The report is cited as saying that Mr. Brookins, who during
some periods was the top official, had shown sex toys and pornography
in his office, while Mr. Hernandez molested inmates in classrooms and
closets.
I hope that all of my colleagues would join me in supporting the
Second Chance Act as well as my H.R. 261, the Federal Prison Bureau
Nonviolent Offender Relief Act of 2007. It is time to make a change.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Prisoner re-entry is not a democratic issue. It's
not

[[Page H12720]]

a Republican issue. It is a commonsense issue. The facts are clear.
Meaningful re-entry programs significantly diminish the chances that
ex-offenders will return to prison.
It gives me great pleasure at this time to yield to my colleague and
good friend, another leader on this issue, the Congresswoman from the
great State of California, Congresswoman Barbara Lee.
Ms. LEE. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you Congresswoman Tubbs
Jones for once again organizing these very important message hours.
Again, your experience as a judge, as a prosecutor, as a mother of a
young African American brilliant young man understands very clearly why
this legislation is so important.

{time} 2100

You have seen lives shattered and you have done your best in so many
ways to make sure that efforts such as the Second Chance Act gets
passed. So thank you again for your leadership and for everything that
you are doing.
And to Congressman Danny Davis, let me just say I am so excited that
finally we will get a chance to vote on this very important bill. You
have been the lone voice in the wilderness and have been working on
this for so many years. We all must begin to recognize the unique needs
of those formerly incarcerated individuals on the path to reentry, and
I can think of no one who has led in this effort such as yourself,
Congressman Davis. So thank you again and congratulations.
Today our prisons and our jails are filled to the roof, mostly with
nonviolent drug offenders at enormous cost to the taxpayers. The
politics of locking people up, very easy. Though not enough lawmakers
have given really much thought to the hard part, and that is the fact
that more than 95 percent, 95 percent of those who are locked up will
return at some point home with little or no preparation to succeed and
no support to keep them out of jail.
The reality is recidivism rates continue to rise, with nearly 70
percent of those released from incarceration returning to prison within
3 years. Without arming them with the necessary tools for survival, we
are condemning them to repeat their past mistakes. This does nothing to
reduce crime, nor does it do anything to provide for safer communities.
Today we can truly change the landscape of reentry programs. We must
make rehabilitation a reality, not just an abstract proposal. By
providing all formerly incarcerated individuals with greater access to
education, jobs, health care, drug treatment, we will reduce recidivism
rates across the board.
Mr. Speaker, the fact is, and just let me say with regard to my
district alone, over 14,000 formerly incarcerated persons return to my
congressional district every year. In my home State of California, over
500,000 adults, 500,000 adults are on parole or probation, primarily
African American and Latino men. Moreover, California spends about
$7,200, just a drop in the bucket, every year on each student but pays
over $25,000 a year for each prisoner. Governor Schwarzenegger has
increased the prison budget by more than $5 billion. That's more than
$1 billion a year since he took office. This is not the way to go. And
in California, unfortunately, and we have worked very hard to do this
and still haven't quite made it, rehabilitation is still not a part of
California's prison reform effort.
So what we are doing here by helping with the Second Chance Act and
getting this passed provides for comprehensive reentry programs that
are really critical not only to my State but to the entire country.
Up to 60 percent of formerly incarcerated individuals are unemployed
a year after release, and up to 30 percent go directly to homeless
shelters upon their release. The incidents of drug use among ex-
offenders is over 80 percent. Now, that's twice the rate of the United
States population. It is more than clear that something needs to be
done.
Following the lead of our colleague from Illinois, Congressman Davis,
just this past weekend, and I wanted to mention this because
Congressman Davis was with at our first record remedy Clean Slate
Summit 3 years ago to help those who qualify to legally clean up their
record so that they can gain access to employment, education, housing,
and civic opportunities. Since this first clinic in April of 2005, and
I believe Congressman Clyburn was there and Congressman Watt and they
witnessed this, there were 900 to 1,000 individuals, primarily African
American men, who came to learn about how to clear up their records.
Well, I am very proud to say that now we have cleared approximately
3,600 records. We worked to coordinate these efforts of community
groups like the East Bay Community Law Center and All of Us Or None of
Us, which is a phenomenal organization, headed by Dorsey Nunn, whom
Congressman Davis knows, who has chapters all over the country, and
they are certainly leading the way in our community. Also with great
elected leaders like Mayor Dellums and Assembly member Sandre Swanson,
Supervisor Carson, many of our judges and the District Attorney's
office.
And it is only through this very comprehensive and cooperative
approach that we can successfully assist those who are so often
completely cut off from their communities. And this is only a small
example of what we can do within a very narrowly defined law. But it is
truly all about us or none of us.
We have a vested interest, a vested interest, in making sure that
people reenter our communities successfully. Help with cleaning their
records provides an opportunity for formerly incarcerated individuals
to get a job, to go back to school, or to find a place to live. This
bill is so important to all of these efforts.
Also I want to thank Congressman Davis and Congresswoman Tubbs Jones
for helping us deal with this one issue that, again, is so important
but oftentimes goes below the radar, and that is allowing ex-offenders
who have paid their debt to society to be allowed access to food
stamps. Many don't even know that there is a lifetime ban, lifetime
ban, on applying for food stamps for those who have been convicted of
drug felonies. We say let them eat. I mean, you know, let them eat. Two
hundred dollars, and you are turned out into a community with nothing
and can't even get food stamps. This is a shame and disgrace.
Again, so many examples of laws that need to be changed, that need to
be changed. But this moment we have now to help pass a bill to help
formerly incarcerated individuals receive this second chance is so, so
important.
Let me remind us of what Booker T. Washington once said. He said:
``Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has
reached in life but by the obstacles which he or she has overcome.'' We
must end this cycle of injustice that is perpetrated by a system that
continues to punish people long after they have paid their debts to
society. No one condones criminal activity; but I tell you once one
serves their time, they should be able to feed their family and move on
with their lives.
In closing, like Congresswomen Tubbs Jones and Jackson-Lee indicated,
as I listened to those speaking tonight in honor of National Bible Week
and as one who deeply believes in the wisdom and direction of the
Bible, to love one another, I do hope that these statements which we
heard tonight weren't just a bunch of rhetoric. I hope that all of
those lifting up the teachings of the Bible tonight vote for this bill,
H.R. 1593, and all of the legislation sponsored by members of the
Congressional Black Caucus, which continues to be the conscience of the
Congress. Our bills, many bills that we see come to this floor truly
reflect the command of the Bible to take care of the least of these. So
tonight and this week we have a chance to do just that.
And I want to thank Congresswoman Carolyn Kilpatrick, our great Chair
of the Congressional Black Caucus for making sure that we come to the
floor and have this opportunity to let the country know what the
Congressional Black Caucus stands for and what we are doing for the
least of these.

Thank you Congresswoman Tubbs Jones again for yielding.
Mr. WELCH of Vermont. Mr. Speaker, will the gentlewoman yield?
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. I yield to the gentleman from Vermont.
Mr. WELCH of Vermont. Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate the
Congressional Black Caucus on this incredibly

[[Page H12721]]

important message hour. I wandered in and we should all be here. This
is tremendous.
And, Representative Davis, thanks for your leadership, along with
your colleagues in doing this. This is tremendous to listen to you. And
you are the conscience of America, let alone the Congress. You are
doing a great job.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I have been waiting 30 years for
Congress to enact meaningful reentry legislation, as I have been deeply
involved in prison reentry programs since my days as a municipal court
judge, common plea judge, and county prosecutor in Cleveland. While
prosecutor, I helped to establish the Pretrial Diversion program, as
well as the Municipal Drug Court program. And I am so happy to be able
to say that it's my understanding that the drug court program in
Cleveland is going to move from the municipal court to expand to the
common pleas court so it is county-wide. Both programs, I'm proud to
say, still exist and continue to help ex-offenders move on with their
lives and become productive citizens.
The State of Ohio has one of the largest populations of ex-offenders
reentering the community, with about 24,000 ex-offenders returning to
their respective communities annually. Of those ex-offenders, about
6,000 will return to Cuyahoga County, my county, and almost 5,000 will
reenter in the City of Cleveland. Statewide about 40 percent of ex-
offenders will return to prison. In Cuyahoga County about 41 percent
will return. Such high recidivism rates translate into thousands of new
crimes each year and wasted taxpayer dollars.
Today I am proud to stand with my colleague Danny Davis as an
original cosponsor of the Second Chance Act of 2007. This legislation
is forward-thinking. It provides opportunities for all the Members of
Congress who sincerely believe in helping their brother or their sister
in times of need to support this legislation.
It gives me great pleasure to yield to the lead sponsor of the Second
Chance Act, Danny Davis of Illinois, and say to him, Danny, thank you
for your leadership on this issue. I'm proud to join with you around
the work that we have been doing on behalf of ex-offenders across the
Nation.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for
yielding.
First of all, I want to commend our leader of the Congressional Black
Caucus, the gentlewoman from Detroit, Michigan, who engages us in such
a way that we are able to do a number of different things as she
provides opportunity for different individuals to display leadership.
And so having Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones convene each Monday
a Special Order, an hour, where the Congressional Black Caucus members
come and discuss issues, I tell you it is a pleasure for me to be here
with my Delta sister from Cleveland, Ohio, a distinguished jurist,
having been a defense attorney, a judge, a prosecutor, legislator, who
understands this issue from every angle, any way that you look at it.
Individuals who are being defended, individuals who have gone into the
system, having to pass judgment, in a sense, and having to bring
charges. It is just a pleasure to be here and to commend you because
you do this every week, every Monday night. I mean, I was struggling to
get here because my plane had some difficulty, but I am so delighted
that I made it.
And to have the opportunity to work with individuals like
Representative Barbara Lee, listening to Barbara with all of the things
that are going on in the Oakland community, the neighborhood, it almost
makes you dizzy.

{time} 2115

But the interesting thing about it is that you know that it's real
because you get the opportunity to see it. I mean, just imagine that
number of individuals that you all have helped clear their records so
that they can get a job, so that they can go to work, so that they can
have a chance. And to know that that's only one of the issues, because
you're leading internationally in creating awareness about the AIDS
pandemic, generating resources and money, bringing to the forefront
health issues that people kind of forget about.
Barbara, it is just a pleasure and an honor to have the opportunity
to serve in the same body with you at the same time and to be inspired
and motivated by the work that you do and by the spirit that you have
and the energy. I mean, Members of the caucus trying to keep up with
you and Sheila Jackson-Lee, with your energy levels, I mean, it's
almost impossible. You can't do it. And so, you know, you just do the
best that you can and follow along and follow suit. Because it has been
a combination of all this work that has raised this issue to the point
where I'm holding in my hand 17 pages of paper that the Chicago Tribune
did last week on this issue, beginning last Sunday with a front page
story, and then following through Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. And
the first story was three pages.
You know, the Chicago Tribune is a big newspaper, and they
highlighted the work of the North Lawndale Employment Network that has
a project where they're teaching ex-offenders how to make honey and how
to tend to bees. And they've actually developed a business. And these
individuals are able now to actually go to work every day, earn a
living. Some of them have already been able to max out of that program,
go into other areas and get jobs, as people have seen what they do. And
so, we are making progress.
But even so, the progress that we're making is awfully small compared
to what is needed. And I thought it was just so important what you said
about Booker Washington in terms of looking at where people have been
and where they've come from. And so when we look at the history of this
country and we recognize the travail, the difficulty that some
population groups have had, that African Americans have experienced,
and now we're trying to make sure that these individuals who have
fallen off the path, who have succumbed in some ways to the
difficulties of living in a tough environment, who are trying to find
their way back, every day I come into contact with a story of somebody
who is on the way up, on the way back, who found a way to get
themselves a job.
I agree with all of my colleagues who have talked about this being
National Bible Week. And I was thinking, as I listened, that we all get
awards and we all get plaques and we all get things given to us. And
the greatest thing that I have ever had given to me was something
called the Gutenburg Award, which came from the Chicago Bible Society,
which is a group of theologians and Bible scholars who analyze work.
And on the basis of one's work and whether or not the work that they're
doing is in keeping with the principles of the Bible, they give awards.
And so, when we talk about redemption and the need to redeem, there
are more than 650,000 individuals who come out of jail and prison every
year in the United States of America and they need to be redeemed. And
so, if you want to be redeemed, you don't have to just go down by the
Jordan Stream, you can go to some of the community programs that exist.
You can help make sure that we provide resources so that those
individuals who come home from jail and prison have some place to go,
so that they have somebody to help them. Because if they get help, the
chances of them recidivating are much less than if they don't.
The statistics show that 67 percent of the individuals who don't get
help are more than likely going to do what we call ``re-offend'' within
a 3-year period of time. More than 50 percent of them will be
reincarcerated. But the recidivism rate goes down contingent upon the
amount of help that they get. Some programs has it down as low as 18-20
percent. Well, that's just doing a great job. And I would hope that
before the week is over, and we're expecting certainly before we
adjourn, that the United States Congress is going to see the wisdom of
reclaiming lives, of helping put people back on the employment rolls so
that they can pay taxes.
You know, I would much rather help a person pay taxes. There is an
old saying that if you give a man a fish, he can eat for a day, but if
you teach him how to fish, he can eat for a lifetime. And so, if we
help the individuals learn how to re-enter and function, then they're
going to help further develop our Nation.
So, I just thank you so much for your leadership and the great work
that

[[Page H12722]]

you've done on this issue and how you tie in the Ways and Means
functions with the needs of these individuals. And we talk about, you
know, people can't get food stamps.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. And if the gentlemen would yield, that
legislation prohibits offenders who have drug convictions from getting
student loans. So if they wanted to go back to school and change their
lives, we've got legislation that prohibits them from having the
opportunity to go back to college.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Well, there are so many barriers, when you sit
and look at it, and you wonder, for example, the person who wants to go
to college can't get a Pell Grant. And many of the individuals who are
incarcerated are young individuals who got caught up maybe in a place
where they were smoking cocaine or they may have gotten picked up and
had some controlled substance on them. And now they're out of school,
they can't get a Pell Grant. And fortunately, we're beginning to
seriously look at that. And fortunately the Supreme Court is looking
seriously at the sentencing disparities that have existed relative to
the difference between the sentences that you get for a conviction of
having crack cocaine versus powder cocaine.
And I think what we're really saying is that these issues have to be
brought to the forefront, and that's why these Special Orders are so
important. I've always been told that awareness brings about
dissatisfaction, and that the more people learn about the way things
are, the more dissatisfied they become. And then if you can take that
dissatisfaction and organize it into some action, now you've got a
chance for some movement.
And therefore, we want to thank all of those many groups who have
been in support of the Second Chance Act, all of that coalition, The
Working Group, individuals who work with criminal justice issues,
individuals who work with drug courts, individuals who know that there
is a better way and a different way, we just have to see that road.
And, you know, the Bible has just so many great experiences. You
know, I remember the story of Paul, you know, Saul of Tarsus on his way
to persecute the Christians, but something turned him around. He met
something and somebody along the road. And from being a prosecutor, he
became the greatest advocate for Christianity that we have known, other
than Jesus the Christ himself.
And so, we hope that there are people who will change their opinions
about what to do with individuals who have fallen off the path. And
again, it's just a real pleasure to be here with you and to share this
time.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Thank you, Congressman Davis. I want to close
this hour with just a few comments.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Let me do this before you do. I would like to
have this document included in the Record, because I think they are
such a great indication of how mass media is beginning to understand
the issue and beginning to recognize it as a problem. And I would like
to include in the Record this document from the Chicago Tribune.

[From the Chicago Tribune, Oct. 28, 2007]

The Beekeepers

(By Louise Kiernan)

The men opened the hive and bees swirled up into the sky
like sparks from a fire.
Bees flew through the weedy yard and past the chain-link
fence. They flew into the alley, where a woman braced herself
against the hood of a police car.
Bees flew toward the gas station, where the calls of
hustlers selling drugs sliced the air. And beyond where the
men could see them, bees scattered into the vacant lots and
back-yard gardens, parks and parking lots of Chicago's West
Side, searching, as always, for nectar.
This sunny morning in September 2006 was warm, but a bite
to the breeze signaled fall. A boy walked by, dressed in a
white shirt and navy pants. School had opened today. It was
time for a new start, time for what the people who work at
the non-profit agency on this corner in East Garfield Park
had decided to call Sweet Beginnings.
The three men standing at the hive were learning how to
become beekeepers. None had any experience at this job or,
for that matter, much significant work history at all.
Tony Smith, a pug of a man with a broad face, moved with
the graceful, contained gestures of someone accustomed to
negotiating small spaces. At 30, he had spent half his life
in prison.
Hovering uneasily behind him was Shelby Gallion, a 22-year-
old former drug dealer. In an oversized T-shirt and jeans
that blurred the outlines of his body, his expression
unreadable, Shelby looked a little out of focus, as if he
might eventually drift out of sight. He lived in a halfway
house, still on parole.
Gerald Whitehead, the oldest member of the trio at 49, had
been released from jail just a week before, after being
cleared of a heroin-possession charge, the most recent
stumble in the struggle to turn his life around after decades
of violence and addiction. Gerald seemed intimidating, with
his heavy-lidded eyes and thrust-out chin, but when he
smiled, his face cracked open wide and bright.
The three men and 17 hives in this yard were the makings of
a small experiment, an attempt to address one of the most
stubborn and destructive problems in Chicago and other cities
around the country: what to do with the hundreds of thousands
of people released each year from prison.
Over the last three decades, harsher penalties for drug
crimes and stricter sentencing laws have helped fuel
explosive growth in the nation's prison population and,
inevitably, in the number of inmates returning to society. In
Chicago alone, roughly 20,000 ex-offenders come home each
year.
Most end up in neighborhoods like this one, where
unemployment is high, opportunity scant and the temptation of
drugs and crime rarely more than a corner away. They don't
stay long. More than half the state's prisoners find
themselves back behind bars within three years of their
release.
Finding work can reduce someone's chances of returning to
prison. Although getting a job with a criminal record is
difficult, checking the conviction box on an application
poses only one hurdle. Many former inmates face other
problems, from poor education and little understanding of
workplace rules to drug addiction or a lack of stable
housing. And behaviors that help people thrive on the job--
teamwork, communication--are often the opposite of those that
ensure survival in prison.
For five years, the North Lawndale Employment Network, or
NLEN, had helped ex-offenders find employment. With Sweet
Beginnings, the agency decided to create its own jobs, in its
own neighborhood, where people could learn how to work and
build an employment history before they moved on. The idea
attracted the attention of major philanthropies and
companies, among them the MacArthur Foundation, Boeing Co.
and Ben & Jerry's, each of which donated expertise or money
to the effort.
Now, what may have once seemed like little more than a
quirky venture--using former prisoners to produce honey in
the ghetto--stood on the verge of transforming itself into a
high-profile business.
Whether it would succeed depended in part upon the three
men in the yard. The men measured success in starker terms.
Failing, they feared, meant going back to the streets, going
back to prison or getting killed.
During the coming year, through the bees' final foraging in
fall, the threat of winter, promise of spring and richness of
summer, the men and the enterprise of Sweet Beginnings would
attempt nothing less than their own reinvention.
This morning's lesson was about survival. John Hansen, the
beekeeper training the workers, showed them how to tilt the
hives to get a sense of how much honey they contained. A
heavy hive meant the bees had stored enough to make it
through the winter. A lighter hive would need help.
The hives, with their unevenly stacked wooden boxes, called
supers, looked like tipsy filing cabinets scattered among the
clumps of goldenrod, Queen Anne's lace and clover.
The men moved among them, gently leaning each hive back and
opening the lid to peer inside.
An elderly woman stopped at the fence. ``What ya'll got in
there? Bees?'' she asked.
``Yep,'' John answered, still bent over a hive.
``Oh, Lord, think I better get back.''
After a minute or two, Shelby disappeared inside the
building. John continued to make his way around the yard,
Gerald and Tony in tow.
``Look at that,'' John cried out at Hive No. 2, lifting a
frame thick with honey, each cell a stud of gold. At Hive No.
6, bees crowded the entrance, but the supers felt
suspiciously light.
When they finished, John delivered his verdict.
``I think,'' he said, ``we can bring them through the
winter.''

Second Chances

``To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,--
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.''--Emily Dickinson

In this pocket of the West Side, the past may fade or burn
or erode almost to dust, but it persists. It holds on.
Like the Star of David that adorns the front of the
Independence Boulevard Seventh Day Adventist Church, a
remnant from the time when Chicago's Jews lived and worshiped
in the neighborhood. Or the cracked patches of concrete in
the overgrown lot at 1550 S. Hamlin Ave., where Martin Luther
King Jr. lived for a short time in a rundown apartment to
protest the way Chicago's blacks were housed.
Or, in the conference room at the North Lawndale Employment
Network, the blotch of greenish ink on Tony Smith's right
forearm, visible as he took notes in a narrow,

[[Page H12723]]

slanting script. It had been a tattoo of a cobra until he
removed what he could with lemon juice and a sewing needle.
The cobra is a symbol of the Mickey Cobras street gang, as
is the ``MC'' inked on Tony's left shoulder. Police records
say Tony belonged to this gang. He won't say much about that
or anything else in his past.
What he will say is this: ``I was a naive, snotty-nosed
street kid who didn't care about himself or other people.''
His first arrest came at age 9, for disorderly conduct. By
the time he turned 13 he had been convicted in an attempted
murder and was, according to a police officer who knew him,
one of the most violent and feared gang members in the
Cabrini-Green public housing complex. He marked his 16th
birthday awaiting trial for beating three men with a gun and
torturing two of them with a heated ice-chopper. That crime
earned Tony a 30-year prison sentence.
He emerged almost 15 years later, having never used a cell
phone or filled out a job application. When he talked about
what he wanted to see for the first time with his own eyes,
he named--after Navy Pier and Millennium Park--a Jet Ski.
Across the conference table, Shelby idly twirled one of the
braids near his ear. Shelby's past was his shoes. The
butterscotch Timberland boots imprinted with tiny hexagons or
the candy-bright Bathing Ape sneakers. New shoes, like his
new watch and new cell phone, the leather ``Scarface'' cell
phone case--all accessories of the lifestyle he said he
wanted to leave behind.
He began selling drugs about the time he started high
school, and by his senior year, the money and all it bought
had easily trumped education. Then came two stints in prison
and, during the second one, nights spent lying on his cot,
wondering what would become of his two young daughters.
That was why he had come to Sweet Beginnings. But he still
thought about the old life. It took him a week at the agency
to earn what he could have made in a matter of hours on the
street.
And Gerald, standing at the kitchen window, staring out at
the hives?
Gerald's past was the hovel of a building across the alley,
where he had snorted $10 bags of heroin. And his
grandmother's house three blocks away, where he had stayed as
a child and sexually assaulted a young woman as an adult. The
bar around the corner where he once got shot on his birthday.
His past was the man crossing the street he knew from
Narcotics Anonymous and the cap-shadowed teenager who walked
in the door of the North Lawndale Employment Network and
addressed him as ``Brother Bone.''
Gerald's past was everywhere.
His earliest memory was of being bitten by a dog. He bit
the dog back.
Gerald wasn't sure whether he remembered this incident
because it happened or remembered it because he was told it
happened. It didn't matter. He became that story: the boy who
would bite back.
He grew up with two older brothers and 10 younger sisters,
a mother who worked as a live-in nurse and a father who was,
as he put it, ``kind of missing in action.''
Gerald struggled in school. He never learned how to read or
write well. The other children made fun of him. By 6th grade,
he had basically stopped going.
``I started out making a career,'' he said. ``Whatever I
could steal to make a hustle.''
At the same time, he joined the Unknown Vice Lords. In the
gang, he could force respect from all the people who had once
belittled him. He moved up to become an ``elite,'' a top-
ranking gang member and close associate of onetime Vice Lords
kingpin Willie Lloyd.
From the age of 20, Gerald bounced in and out of prison,
spending more time inside than out: armed robbery, home
invasion, criminal sexual assault, burglary, aggravated
battery, drug possession.
He was 43 before he decided he couldn't do the time
anymore. He has his conversion story. One night in prison, he
broke down. Was this all his life would ever be? Had God put
him here for nothing more? He wanted to die.
Then, in his cell, he sensed the spirit of his late
grandmother, who always gave him a meal when he was hungry
and a bed when he was homeless, and he felt at peace.
He could try to change.
It proved difficult. He lost a job working in maintenance
at a nursing home after a background check revealed his
criminal record, he said. There was an arrest for domestic
battery. He was using drugs too, crack and then heroin. He
became a dope fiend, a hype.
That went on for years, until his mother persuaded him to
check into a residential drug treatment program, where he
stayed for five months. Not long after he got out, in the
spring of 2006, he stopped by the fence at NLEN on his way to
sell loose cigarettes at the gas station nearby. He knew the
agency; the month before, he had gone through its four-week
job-training program for ex-offenders.
A couple of men were setting up hives. Gerald asked if he
could watch. Then he asked if he could help. He stepped into
the yard and began handling the hives, as though, one of the
men observed, he had been beekeeping all his life.
At first, Gerald worked for free. He did whatever needed to
be done: fixing the lawn mower, pulling weeds, picking up the
trash that blew in from the alley. It was somewhere to go
every day. Soon, the agency began to pay him, $7.25 an hour.
Every day was a fight. Stay straight, go to work. Failing
would be as easy as stumbling off the curb into the street.
``It's a wrassle trying to do good,'' Gerald said one
afternoon. ``You always got evil whispering in your ear.''
He felt comfortable around the bees. He liked them. If you
didn't know bees, he thought, they might scare you. But once
you knew them, you came to respect them.
Gerald understood bees.
Finding sweetness
The building that housed the North Lawndale Employment
Network, near the corner of West Flournoy Street and South
Independence Boulevard, had once been a duplex and still felt
like someone's home.
Walk in and you might find a worker bouncing a toddler on
her knee while she interviewed the child's mother or an old
woman grumbling about delays on the Pulaski bus.
Most days, the center hummed with people who came for one
of the agency's job-training programs, a computer class or to
get help writing a resume. Amid the bustle, the Sweet
Beginnings employees set up beekeeping class at whatever
table happened to be free and began to learn about bees.
They learned there are three types of honeybees: the worker
bee, which is female; the drone, which is male; and the queen
bee, which mates with the drones and lays the colony's eggs.
They learned that a worker bee lives for about six weeks.
They learned that it takes the nectar from 5 million flowers
to make 1 pint of honey. They learned that pollen mixed with
nectar is called bee bread.
During these lessons, Tony took notes on a yellow legal
pad. Gerald tilted his chair back or leaned forward, head
propped on his arms, always restless. Shelby occasionally
cleaned his nails with a public transit card.
Their teacher, John Hansen, was 76 and white and jangled
the change in his pocket. He had begun keeping bees 31 years
before, after he saw a sign someone had posted on a bulletin
board at the suburban publishing company where he worked,
offering to sell two hives. He went on to become president of
the Illinois State Beekeepers Association, and in his
retirement, he still kept bees, sold honey and ran a small
business managing hives and removing bees from people's
homes.
Of everything John taught the men about bees, they found
nothing as interesting or amusing as what they learned about
drones.
When drones hatch, the worker bees help them out of their
brood cells while the worker bees must emerge on their own.
Drones that mate with the queen on what is euphemistically
called the ``nuptial flight'' die because the act rips their
sexual organs from their bodies. When winter approaches,
worker bees drive the drones from the hive, to certain death.
One morning, Tony walked in with his heavily underlined
copy of ``Beekeeping in the Midwest,'' the book they were
assigned to read.
``It said male drones are like human males,'' Tony told
John. ``They don't do no work. I kid you not, that's what
they said.'' The book doesn't compare men and bees; that was
Tony's analysis.
In the beginning, the men's hands-on instruction mostly
involved learning how to care for the hives and prepare them
for winter. While they worked, they used a smoker, a metal
can with attached bellows, to blow smoke into the hives to
distract the bees. The smoke causes the bees to act as though
their hive is on fire, and they eat honey to fortify
themselves to flee, ignoring intruders.
Honey bees usually sting only if they feel threatened. Tony
had never been stung, so John plucked a bee from a hive and
stung him with it to make sure he wasn't allergic to the
venom. Gerald hardly seemed to notice stings or care beyond
issuing the occasional epithet. Shelby seemed the most leery,
often hanging back while the others worked. But when Tony
asked if the bees scared him, Shelby denied it.
In the early fall, the men learned how to extract honey, to
harvest it from the frames where bees build the combs.
Because the Sweet Beginnings hives didn't contain enough
honey to spare, John brought in eight frames from his own
apiary. The frames, stacked in the kitchen of the resource
center, looked a little like wood-frame screens, except that,
instead of wire grids, the panels held hundreds of hexagons
filled with honey.
As the men crowded around a large metal tank, a lone bee
banged against the kitchen window.
``Do we have to actually do it?'' Tony asked.
``Yeah, you guys are going to do it,'' John replied.
To extract honey, a beekeeper uses a knife to cut open the
wax caps that seal the individual cells of honey in the
frame. Then, the frames are placed in an extractor, which
spins them to release the honey. The honey drips down the
walls of the extractor and exits through a tap.
Slowly and delicately, Shelby slid the knife against the
frame. Wax curled off in strips. A slight scent, sweet and
floral, filled the kitchen.
``Just swipe it,'' Tony advised.
``Let it ride even and flat,'' Gerald said.
``You're doing fine,'' John said. ``Just watch your
fingers.''
Tony and Gerald each took a turn. The knife, as it drew
across the wax, made the

[[Page H12724]]

thick, wet smack of a cartoon kiss. Sunlight warmed the honey
in the frames to the color of amber, glowing against the
black shadow of the blade.
``That honey look good, don't it?'' Tony asked.
As the extractor spun, the air began to smell sweeter and
sweeter. Thin streams ran down the inside of the tank.
Minutes passed. A nickel-sized dollop of honey pooled on the
filter atop the white bucket under the tap.
``There's the first drop,'' John said.
While the extractor whirred, the men went outside to check
on the bees. Brenda Palms Barber, the exuberant black woman
who served as the North Lawndale Employment Network's chief
executive officer, joined them.
``I want to see how the babies are doing,'' she called out,
standing at the hives, perfectly at ease in her gray suit
while the others wore jackets with netted hoods.
More than two years before, Brenda had come up with the
idea for Sweet Beginnings when she decided that the
employment network needed to do more than help people find
jobs; it needed to create them.
She considered a landscaping business or delivery service
but worried that customers might be reluctant to allow ex-
offenders in their homes. A friend suggested a honey co-op.
Brenda knew nothing about honey, but the idea intrigued
her. She liked it even better when she learned that some
people consider urban honey more flavorful than its rural
counterpart because the bees can gather nectar from more
varied flowers within a shorter distance. Imagine creating
sweetness out of the asphalt and hardship of the West Side.
The agency launched Sweet Beginnings in the spring of 2004
with a grant from the Illinois Department of Corrections. Two
years later, after parting ways with the original group of
beekeepers working with the agency, the program started over
with fresh bees and a new idea.
The bees came from Wisconsin, picked up and delivered by
NLEN's chief operating officer, who had to roll down the
windows of his Jeep Cherokee on the way back because the
30,000 bees generated so much heat and noise.
The new idea came from a business plan created by
volunteers at Boeing, the chairwoman of the board of Ben &
Jerry's and others. It called for Sweet Beginnings to shift
its focus from selling honey to selling honey-based products
such as lotion and lip balm. They hoped the move would
increase profits and, with the expansion into manufacturing,
packaging and marketing, the job prospects of its workers.
When Brenda and the beekeepers returned to the kitchen,
about 4 inches of honey stood in the 5-gallon bucket.
She passed out plastic spoons and everyone dipped in to
taste.
``Yum,'' she said. ``It's really, really good.''
She continued to talk, in a stream of words as smooth and
unbroken as the honey pouring into the bucket. She talked
about biscuits and business competition and hosting a honey
cook-off and social purpose and making lip balm.
When she was almost done, she said, ``That's some of the
stuff we're thinking.'' Then she paused and said something
else, slowly, as if the idea had just struck her.
``Our demographic,'' she said, ``is the opposite of the
people working on it.''

Under suspicion

``There is a Thief Amongst Us!'' the signs announced.
``IS IT YOU!''
One sign was posted above the sink in the kitchen of the
resource center. Another was taped to the bathroom door. More
hung on the walls next to inspirational quotes from Eleanor
Roosevelt and Gail Sheehy.
The signs went up in late September, after someone stole
the agency's digital camera from a cabinet in the downstairs
conference room. It was only the second theft in the two
years since NLEN had moved into the building, and it hurt.
The agency prided itself on being the kind of place where
visitors wandered back to the kitchen to help themselves to
coffee and bought candy for school fundraisers by dropping a
dollar on a desktop.
No doors barred the offices; no cameras peered down from
the ceilings. The clients who came here already felt as
though the world treated them like criminals; the people who
helped them didn't want to do the same.
That trust disappeared with the discovery of a dented
cabinet door.
Brenda felt betrayed. She didn't like thieves. She could
find a job for a murderer before she could find one for a
thief. Stealing was a crime of opportunity, and every time a
thief saw something to steal, he had to decide not to steal
it.
If the signs shouted the crime, other conversations in the
building occurred in whispers.
Who would know the camera was kept in the basement
conference room, in the cabinet with the VCR? The beekeepers,
who watched videos for their classes. And Gerald? Well, he
had been an addict, and everyone knows that hypes steal.

Mrs. JONES of Ohio. I want to highlight, if I might, just a couple of
programs in the City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, that have been
successful in community re-entry.
I have served on the board of the Community Re-Entry Program under
the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries for some 25 years. I remember with
great glee Rev. Dick Searing, who has gone on to shine down upon us as
we continue his work, as well as Charles See, who is the executive
director, and a lot of the members that were on the board. We were
able, through Community Re-Entry, to do a number of things, and one of
those was to develop care teams, and the care teams were made of ex-
offenders. And we developed these care teams such that at one point in
time they were literally serving as caretakers or workers for senior
citizens staying in public housing.
One of the senior citizens actually said that she viewed the, we
called them ``care team members,'' and they wore red jackets, and she
stated how she felt about them. And she said, ``They're not criminals.
They're just like my sons. And they've been taking care of me.''
The care teams were paid employees of Community Re-Entry. They
received a full-time benefit package, including vacation, health
insurance and pension that was fully vested after 1 year. The
recidivism rate for our care team members was less than 5 percent.
We also had a program under Community Re-Entry called Friend to
Friend. The Friend to Friend program recruited, trained and coordinated
volunteers to visit men and women in prison. Male volunteers are
matched with men at Lorain Correctional and Grafton Prison located in
Lorain County Ohio, and females were matched with women at the Pre-
Release Center in Cleveland. The purpose of the program is to reduce
socialization of people who are incarcerated and help them prepare for
re-entry into the community. Because one of the dilemmas is that
sometimes the penal institution is so far away from the family
background, that they have a family home that they have no way of going
to visit. Also, it is said that an inmate in prison is more likely to
successfully re-enter if he has a support base around him when he or
she returns home.
Another wonderful program that we had was we started a catering
service that was run by ex-offenders who prepared boxed lunches, and we
were able to serve many of the downtown businesses who did box lunches.
We also had a painting company, and we were able to paint many of the
different houses across the county.
What I would really just want to say in concluding this is that this
is a unique opportunity for this Congress to step up and support a
program that truly has been successful across the country. Community
entry means that we will say to ex-offenders in this Nation, if you
have done your time, then you have paid your commitment to the United
States, the State of Ohio, whatever State you come from, and we now
want to help you come back to be a productive citizen in the United
States of America; paying taxes, raising families, paying child
support, and really helping to make our community a better place.
I am so pleased to have an opportunity, and I said, I've been waiting
30 years for the Federal Congress to come back and do what they need to
do with regard to community re-entry.
I thank all of my colleagues and friends for the opportunity. And I'm
going to say it one more time, if we are truly going to celebrate the
Bible, and my grandfather was a minister, I'm a student of the Bible,
and I can name Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and go
down the list, but I will say to you, the best thing that we can do is
to take care of one another.
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in
strong support of the Second Chance Act, and I thank Mr. Davis for
introducing this important piece of legislation.
In America we have more than 2 million people in prison. Of these,
over 600,000 are released each year. Very few of these individuals are
prepared to return to their communities or receive support services to
ease their transition.
These ex-offenders face serious impediments in obtaining employment,
and often have serious mental or physical ailments that remain
unaddressed. Today, approximately half of all black men are jobless.
Amongst ex-offenders this number is even higher.
There is a revolving door of ex-offenders into many of our
neighborhoods. With few opportunities, two-thirds of all ex-offenders
are arrested for new crimes within a few years of their release. We
must give these individuals the opportunity to become productive
citizens.

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The Second Chance Act will go a long way towards this goal by
providing transitional assistance to ex-offenders reentering their
communities. By focusing on the major impediments that face ex-
offenders, the Second Chance Act seeks to reduce recidivism and give
those reentering society a new opportunity to turn their lives around.
This legislation addresses the need for jobs, housing, and substance
abuse/mental health treatment, and it works to reunite families and
provide the appropriate training and rehabilitation for these
individuals.
This bill will increase public safety and give millions of ex-
offenders a chance to be positive productive citizens. I strongly urge
my colleagues' support.

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