The Department of Justice appropriations bill for the 2010 budget year is ready for a House-Senate conference committee. The results of those negotiations will determine how much money will be used to fund programs authorized by the Second Chance Act, a prison re-entry bill CMC supported.

In the context of the federal budget, $50 million isn’t much – but for a new, much-delayed program like the Second Chance Act, it’s the difference between what the House wants to spend and what the Senate has authorized. It could make a huge difference in the future of the program. Click here to ask your Member of Congress and U.S. Senators to support the Senate’s $100 million budget figure for the Second Chance Act.

The Second Chance Act, passed in 2008, has yet to be implemented for lack of funding. It authorizes pilot programs to help released felons – men and women who have paid their debt to society – the opportunity to become productive citizens outside the walls of a prison. It will facilitate programs like parenting classes, substance-abuse programs, job-training fellowships and similar opportunities. Such training is essential – imagine being cut off from modern technology at a time when the fax machine was a cutting-edge communication tool and being brought back into the mainstream today and you get a sense of what happens to many released felons in just one aspect of their lives.

CMC believes the Senate version of the Justice Department authorization, which authorizes $100 million for Second Chance Act programs, is the appropriate way to begin. Please help us advocate for that figure in the final bill.

Click here to ask your Member of Congress and U.S. Senators to support the Senate’s $100 million budget figure for the Second Chance Act.