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When President Bush placed his signature on the Second Chance Act, he was flanked by members of Congress from across all political, racial, and religious lines. It was a remarkable tableau, and I savored being a witness to it.

The Second Chance Act aims to reduce recidivism by refocusing prisons on preparing inmates for the difficult transition back to their home communities. Isn’t it remarkable that, in the midst of a very contentious election season, our leaders set aside their differences to pass a bill to help prisoners? Prisoners have no political clout. They cannot vote. They do not have a political action committee. And most people would like to forget that prisoners exist. Yet, Congress passed this legislation by overwhelming bipartisan majorities. How did this noteworthy event happen?

A LONG TIME IN THE MAKING

The Second Chance Act was five years in the making. And the role that the Church played in this success is important to note. In 2003, a small cadre of civil-rights organizations, Christian groups, and government associations met to develop a proposal on prisoner reentry that would be able to gain support from across the political spectrum. The bill had to appeal to diverse members of Congress—from the secular prisoners’ rights advocates to Christian conservatives; from corrections professionals to civil-rights activists; from “tough on crime” advocates to “bleeding-heart” liberals.

This was not an easy task. Each group had its own view of what was most important to put in the bill, and some of the advocates did not understand the basic political principle that you may not get everything you want if you want to piece together a majority vote for the bill. Among these ardent advocates, the perfect is often the enemy of the good. However, in the end, each was willing to accept less to keep the bill moving.

The reentry movement got a tremendous boost when President Bush called for reentry legislation in his 2004 State of the Union address to Congress. “America is the land of second chance,” he said, “and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life.” And our bill got a name: “The Second Chance Act.”

Our remarkable coalition grew to more than 200 groups supporting the legislation. They ranged from Prison Fellowship to the ACLU, and included the Methodists, NAACP, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Catholic Bishops, Open Society Institute, Council of State Governments, La Raza, and the American Correctional Association. The conservative Washington Times editorialized in favor of the bill, as did the liberal New York Times.

Despite this broad support, the bill got stopped in its tracks several times. The issues that hung it up are not as important as the fact that, at these key junctures, we were able to bring leaders of each party into the fracas and remove the barrier. Because of Prison Fellowship’s 30 years of faithful ministry in prisons, we were trusted by both the liberals and the conservatives. We worked closely with the staffs of liberals like John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) and conservatives like Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kans.). By serving the “least of these” whom Jesus loved, Prison Fellowship has an audience when we address matters of social reform, such as prisoner reentry.

BELIEVING IN TRANSFORMATION
The most important part of the Second Chance Act for Prison Fellowship is the mentoring program, which will provide grants to community and faith-based groups to recruit, train, and match volunteer mentors with returning prisoners. We know from our three decades of ministering to prisoners and their families that a relationship with good, moral people from local churches is the largest factor in an offender’s successful return to the community. While Prison Fellowship does not accept grants from the federal government, this bill would help many of the churches we work with expand their capacity to recruit additional mentors for the ever-increasing number of prisoners being released.

If you are interested in finding other ways to help inmates and their families, I recommend my book, When Prisoners Return, in which I lay out many practical ways you and your church can help inmates as they take their first, challenging steps in freedom. And you can find out how to become active in Prison Fellowship’s local ministry at Prison Fellowship’s website.

Most of us can remember a teacher, coach, or neighbor who believed in us and helped us believe in ourselves. That is exactly what returning offenders need, yet most have never had someone like that in their lives. Mentors can fill that void. A loving mentor lets returning inmates know that the community is invested in their success. You can provide the love that Paul asked Philemon to give to Onesimus: “Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good—no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother.”

Pat Nolan is a vice-president of PFM and leads the criminal justice reform arm, Justice Fellowship.

Pat Nolan, “Giving Prisoners a Second Chance,” Inside Out.

Find more information on the Second Chance Act at the Justice Fellowship website.

See a video and transcript of Bush’s remarks at the signing of the bill.

Read the text of Second Chance Act.

Pat Nolan, When Prisoners Return (Xulon Press, 2004).

Learn how you can volunteer at Prison Fellowship’s website.