[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 4 (Monday, February 4, 2008)]
[Pages 126-128]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks During a Visit to the Jericho Program in Baltimore, Maryland

January 29, 2008

    Thank you all for coming. I'm proud to be standing with you men. 
Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your hospitality.
    Last night in my State of the Union, I highlighted the important 
work being done by faith-based organizations. This morning I was pleased 
to visit one of these inspiring groups, the Episcopal Community Services 
of Maryland, right here in Baltimore. I cannot thank you enough for the 
chance to take a tour. And Bonnie, you and your staff have been most 
hospitable.
    I've come to look firsthand at the Jericho Program, which is helping 
former prisoners make a successful transition back to society. There's 
no more important goal than to help good souls become--come back to our 
society as productive citizens. I'm honored to have been with those who 
have worked hard to deal with their circumstances in such a way that 
they become productive citizens. I'm standing next to two such men, and 
I met probably seven others downstairs.
    I do want to thank Bonnie Ariano for joining me and the Secretary. 
I'm going to talk about the Secretary's role here in a minute, in this 
important program. I thank very much Greg Carpenter, a former prisoner 
who is now a mentor, a leader in this program. And he's a--I appreciate 
his heart.
    I welcome Jay Hein, Director of the Office of Faith-Based and 
Community Initiatives at the White House. I do want to thank State 
Senator David Brinkley for joining us. Senator, I'm proud you're here. I 
appreciate the Jericho staff. I want to thank the Episcopal Community 
Services of Maryland board of directors. I appreciate you all coming. I 
thank you very much for supporting this program.
    When I came into office, the Nation's traditions of religious 
freedom and equal opportunity were facing unnecessary obstacles. 
Throughout America, religious and community groups were providing 
effective assistance to people in need, but there was a great reluctance 
on the part of the Federal Government to help them. There was the notion 
that somehow that there needed to be a clear separation of church and 
state, and therefore, we shouldn't be using taxpayers' money to help 
programs that were helping to meet important national goals.
    Unfortunately, in some instances where there was an interface with 
Government, people were told that in order to interface, you have to 
take the cross off the wall or take down the Star of David. In other 
words, you had to abandon the very principle by which you existed in the 
first place. And it made no sense. If a program was effective because 
they were willing to recognize a higher power, if a program was 
effective because people responded because they felt a call from a 
higher power, then to deny the higher power really reduced the 
effectiveness of the program.
    And so 7 years ago, my administration created the White House Office 
of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives to deal with this problem. We 
wanted to focus our Government and taxpayers' money on solutions, on 
effective programs, and we recognized that many of the effective 
programs existed in the faith community. Washington, DC, oftentimes is a 
process-oriented town. We need to work hard to make it a results-
oriented town. And if one of the compelling national interests is to 
help good people who have been in prison come back and readjust and 
learn skills and the attitudes necessary to be a productive citizen, if 
that's an important national concern, then we ought to turn to programs 
that are meeting those results. That's what we ought to do.
    And that's what's happening right here. That's why I'm here. This is 
a program that is working, and it is supported by the Federal 
Government, and it should be.
    Since 2001, the Government has leveled the playing field. That's one 
of our objectives early on in my administration, was to level the 
playing field, to make it easier for faith-based and community groups to 
compete for billions of dollars in Federal grants, grants that would 
help them accomplish their objectives.
    With this newfound support, America's faith-based groups are getting 
results. If you ask people here, is a program working? The answer is, 
absolutely. It's one thing to ask

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the Director; more importantly, it's another thing to ask those who have 
benefited. These are men who were, in some ways, lost and lonely and 
found love and redemption at Jericho. I'm going to talk about them in 
just a second.
    But there are all kinds of programs that are helping meet our 
national needs and goals. There are programs to help provide mentors for 
70,000 children whose parents are incarcerated. There are programs to 
help deal with drug addiction and alcohol addiction, programs to help 
young people in our inner cities escape gangs. These are all programs 
where a faith-based or community group has dedicated their lives to 
solve a problem. And it makes sense for the Federal Government to give 
these programs a chance to access taxpayers' money.
    When we begin the work, we didn't settle for just opening an office 
in the White House; we opened 11 offices for faith-based and community 
initiatives throughout the Federal Government. It's one thing for the 
White House to have an office, but most of the money--or all the money, 
for that matter is appropriated to different Cabinet officers and their 
secretariats, and then those distribute the money. And so we wanted to 
make sure that this faith-based initiative was rooted throughout the 
Government.
    And one of the offices is at the Department of Labor, ably headed by 
Secretary Elaine Chao. She's a member of my Cabinet. Every year, nearly 
650,000 men and women are released from prison, and one of her top 
priorities, along with the Department of Justice, is to help those 
readjust to our society. And there's a compelling reason to: half the 
people getting released from prison go back. And the idea is to help 
deal with that issue. We don't want people going back to prison. We want 
to help them readjust in society. And it turns out that faith-based 
programs are very effective. And this is such a program.
    The whole purpose of Jericho is a prisoner reentry initiative. 
That's why you exist. It's interesting how a program like this works. 
This is a small program, really, to some of the really large faith-based 
programs. And by the way, part of our initiative was to encourage what I 
call social entrepreneurship. It's to stand side by side with smaller 
programs, because smaller programs, when they're proved to be 
successful, turn out to be larger programs. And larger programs 
obviously help more people, but they also serve as an example.
    I like the fact that you call yourselves ``the Jericho.'' After all, 
the walls came tumbling down. That's what's happening here. Old walls 
are tumbling down, and new lives are being built.
    One of the great things about a faith-based program--one of the 
great aspects of a faith-based program is, there's a lot of people in 
our society who hear the call to love a neighbor. That's, after all, one 
of the key tenets of faith, love a neighbor like you'd be--like to 
love--be loved yourself. And so what you find here is programs supported 
by people who want to make a difference in our society, and it doesn't 
require a government law to cause them to do so. You need to pass a law 
and sign a law that says, you will love your neighbor; there's a higher 
law that does that. And these programs just gather that love and work to 
save societies one soul at a time.
    And we've got two such souls here. Adolphus Mosely--he came here 
last summer after having been released from prison, and he graduated 
from one of Jericho's work training programs. And he started--got him a 
new job. And he's proud of that.
    By the way, first, there's a--people have got to come here and 
realize that there are people who love them and want to help them. And 
second, there is the practical application of helping somebody find 
work. Addiction is hard to overcome. As you might remember, I drank too 
much at one time in my life. I understand faith-based programs. I 
understand that sometimes you can find the inspiration from a higher 
power to solve an addiction problem. This program helps along these 
folks who have--had been dealing with addictions.
    I also appreciate Thomas Boyd. He spent nearly 4 years in prison. He 
came here in September. And thanks to the program, he's got a new 
dilemma: He had to choose between several job offers. [Laughter] That's 
a good dilemma to have. He's supporting himself. He's--both these men 
are reunited with their daughters. They find great pride in the fact 
that they have chosen a path with

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the help of the folks at Jericho. They shared with me their love for 
their little girls, and I know the feeling. And I appreciate the fact 
that, you know, that you're on your feet and you're feeling good and 
strong and you're assuming the responsibility of fatherhood.
    And so I've come to herald programs such as the Jericho Program. Our 
Government should not fear the influence of faith in our society. We 
ought to welcome faith-based programs. Last night I called on the 
Government to make the charitable choice provisions of our law 
permanent. We shouldn't say to programs such as this, we'll help you 
through a Department of Labor and Justice grant, and then turn our back 
on the program when it's successful. There ought to be consistency of 
policy. Our Government ought to welcome results. We ought to say, thank 
God there are people such as this in our neighborhoods and societies 
helping these good men.
    So it's an honor to be here. I'm proud to be in the presence of 
Americans who care deeply about our country and are willing to do 
something about the future of the country by helping lost souls find 
love and hope in their lives. And I want to thank the--I want to thank 
very much the Episcopal Community Services for sponsoring this program.
    Again, I want to thank you all for leading with your hearts. Thank 
these two good men for joining me today. God bless you. Proud to be with 
you. Thank you.
    All right. Thank you all.

Note: The President spoke at 11:45 a.m. at the Robert M. Davis House. In 
his remarks, he referred to Bonnie Ariano, director, and Greg Carpenter, 
coordinator for mentoring and training, Jericho Program.