[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 42 (Wednesday, March 12, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S1993]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           RECIDIVISM REDUCTION AND SECOND CHANCE ACT OF 2007

  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I rise today to thank my colleagues for 
passing yesterday by unanimous consent the Recidivism Reduction and 
Second Chance Act of 2007, which I introduced in March of last year. I 
am delighted that my colleagues, Senators Specter, Brownback, and 
Leahy, and I were able to bring Democrats and Republicans together to 
support this very important piece of legislation.
  The bill aims to reduce the rate of recidivism by improving the 
transition of offenders from prison back into the community. Preventing 
recidivism is not only the right thing to do, it makes our communities 
safer and it saves us money.
  Today, we have over 2 million individuals in our Federal and State 
prisons and millions more in local jails. Our Federal and State prisons 
will release nearly 650,000 of these offenders back into our 
communities this year. A staggering two-thirds of released State 
prisoners will be rearrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 
3 years of release.
  It is not difficult to see why. These ex-offenders face a number of 
difficult challenges upon release. The unemployment rate among former 
inmates is as high as 60 percent; 15 to 27 percent of prisoners expect 
to go to homeless shelters upon release; and 57 percent of Federal and 
70 percent of State inmates used drugs regularly before prison. This 
addiction and dependency often continues during incarceration.
  Unless we address these problems, these individuals will commit 
hundreds of thousands of serious crimes after their release, and our 
communities will bear the human and economic cost. If we are going to 
reduce recidivism and crime, we simply have to make concerted, common-
sense efforts now to help ex-offenders successfully reenter and 
reintegrate into their communities.
  The Recidivism Reduction and Second Chance Act of 2007 confronts 
head-on the dire situation of prisoners reentering our communities with 
insufficient monitoring, little or no job skills, inadequate drug 
treatment, insufficient housing, lack of basic physical and mental 
health services, and deficient basic life skills. Through commonsense 
and cost-effective measures, the bill offers a second chance for ex-
offenders, and the children and families that depend on them, and it 
strengthens our communities and ensures safe neighborhoods.
  The Second Chance Act provides grants for the development and 
implementation of comprehensive substance abuse treatment programs, 
academic and vocational education programs, housing and job counseling 
programs, and mentoring for offenders who are approaching release and 
who have been released. To ensure accountability, the bill requires 
grantees to establish performance goals and benchmarks and report the 
results to Congress.
  The bill authorizes $324 million over 2 years in competitive grant 
funding. These funds represent an investment in our future and an 
acknowledgement of the problem we face. We must remember that the 
average cost of incarcerating each prisoner exceeds $20,000 per year, 
with expenditures on corrections alone having increased from $9 billion 
in 1982 to $60 billion in 2002. That is more than a 6-fold increase, 
and the costs keep going up.
  A relatively modest investment in offender reentry efforts today is 
far more cost-effective than the alternative--building more prisons for 
these ex-offenders to return to if they can't reenter their communities 
and are convicted of further crimes. An ounce of prevention, as the 
saying goes, is worth a pound of cure.
  I am proud today to witness the passage of the Recidivism Reduction 
and Second Chance Act, a bill that will transform offender reentry 
policy in this country. The safety of our neighbors, our children, and 
our communities depends on it. I urge the President to quickly sign 
this bill into law.
  I would particularly like to thank Nancy Libin on my staff, Lisa 
Owings on Senator Specter's staff, LaRochelle Young on Senator 
Brownback's staff, and Noah Bookbinder on Senator Leahy's staff, all of 
whom worked tirelessly to get this bill passed.

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