When Barack Obama gave a speech on fatherhood last year, Kathryn Jean Lopez probably spoke for many conservatives when she wrote "talk is cheap." Months later, the Democratic Party laid a new plank in their party platform last year devoted to fatherhood, which gave a rather broad outline recognizing the important role that fathers play in families, and committing to policy solutions for eliminating fatherlessness. Among those hinted at was more financial support for reentry programs, which help the formerly incarcerated adjust to life on the outside. The Justice Center estimates that more than 7 million children may have a parent in prison or jail, or under parole or probation supervision. Obviously, these children are at greater risk to follow in their parents footsteps. What reentry programs do is they offer job training so that fathers can provide financially for their families, but they also provide counseling and parental classes to help the formerly incarcerated meet their parental obligations. This kind of process is incredibly important; the skills one develops and culture one adjusts to in prison is completely antithetical to keeping a job or raising a family.
The budget outline released yesterday shows the Obama administration is beginning to put their money where there mouth is, in funding it intends to commit to the Department of Justice:
Expands Prisoner Reentry Programs. The Budget includes $109 million for prisoner reentry programs, including an additional $75 million for the Office of Justice Programs to expand grant programs authorized by the Second Chance Act that provide counseling, job training, drug treatment, and other transitional assistance to former prisoners.
The impact of many of these programs is real but limited--they're staffed by highly motivated workers who are committed to fixing the shortcomings of the criminal justice system, many of them have been through it themselves. But because the movement is somewhat new, we still have a limited understanding of what works and what doesn't.
-- A. Serwer
