ShareThisRedemption is usually considered to be the prerogative of religion. The extraordinary effectiveness of the Salvation Army worldwide in redeeming the down-and-out is but one prominent example of the successful application of religious faith to the rehabilitation of those in need.From the outset, the Bush administration has attempted to put government behind "faith-based" organizations that meet human needs. Unfortunately, complaints about funding sectarian social programs with taxpayer money have limited the program's reach.But now, in a bipartisan effort reminiscent of the 1960s' War on Poverty, the White House and Congress are embracing and funding an initiative to rehabilitate some of our neediest (and potentially most dangerous) citizens -- the 2.2 million Americans currently serving time in prison or jail.Every year, 650,000 offenders are returned to society, having completed their sentences. All too often they are released with nothing more than a one-way bus ticket home (if they have a home). A job seldom awaits them, and many have no family or other loved ones willing to take them in.So it's no wonder that two-thirds of them are back behind bars within three years of their release, having resumed lives of crime. Incarceration punishes them but fails to change their hearts and habits.Not long after Easter, the Christian feast of redemption, President Bush signed the bipartisan Second Chance Act to help offenders re-enter society to become useful citizens. The New York Times editorialized that "the Second Chance Act, five years in the making, is a welcome relief from the simplistic lock-'em-up posture of recent decades that has the United States leading the world in incarceration."The new law promises a $326 million down payment to states, local governments, and nonprofit groups (not all of them faith-based) that are expert in finding housing, health services and employment for ex-prisoners. Instead of imposing a cookie-cutter remedy to cover all offenders, it will provide for individual mentoring, vocational training and better drug treatment.The new program can actually save money, notably by assisting elderly nonviolent offenders, who are little threat to society but each of whom costs the American taxpayer more than $20,000 a year to keep in prison. The act will also provide alternatives to jail for parents convicted of nonviolent crimes so they can resume responsibility for raising their children.In signing the bill, the president used the word "redemption" to signal its purpose, and alluded to his own past struggles with alcoholism.(David Yount's "Growing in Faith: A Guide for the Reluctant Christian" (Seabury) is in a new edition. He answers readers at P.O. Box 2758, Woodbridge, VA 22195 and dyount(at)erols.com.)
A government experiment in redemption
Paying taxes unites us. It also divides us. People can pay five and even six times more in state and local taxes than other folks in similar circumstances making similar incomes.
Who's got your number?
In one of the fastest-growing forms of identity theft, crooks are stealing tax refunds by swiping personal information and using it to trick the Internal Revenue Service.
