Spotlight Announcement
9/20/2005: Second Chance Act Introduced in U.S. House; Senate Introduction Expected Soon
The Second Chance Act, a bill to promote community safety through recidivism prevention, was introduced in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, April 19th as H.R. 1704. If passed, the bill will provide $110 million over two years, $40 million each year for "demonstration grants" to states and $15 million each year for "mentoring grants" to community- and faith-based organizations. The bill is sponsored by Representative Rob Portman, has 28 co-sponsors, and enjoys bipartisan support in both houses of Congress.
In recent remarks, Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, a key sponsor of the Senate version of the Second Chance Act in 2004, indicated that a version of the bill is likely to be introduced soon in the Senate as well. Brownback spoke on Monday, April 18th, at both the Kansas Policy Forum on Reentry and a forum hosted by the International Community Corrections Association.
Second Chance Act legislation was originally introduced in both houses in 2004, but did not reach a vote in either house.
For more information on the SCA, please click here or email scainfo@csg.org.
Our Publications
The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center announced today the release of the toolkit, Planning and Assessing a Law Enforcement Reentry Strategy. With support by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), the kit has been designed as a guide and self-assessment tool for policing personnel and their partners to help reduce repeat crimes and facilitate successful reintegration by the more than 700,000 individuals who return to our communities from prisons each year and the more than 9 million from jails.