Rangle's Second Chance Act building strength

Congressman Bob Filner Gives Rangel's Second Chance Act Big Boost
Charles Benninghoff
July 18, 2007

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Rehabilitated Project announced that Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA) has agreed to become a cosponsor of H. R. 623, the "Second Chance Act for Ex-Offenders of 2007", a bill before Congress authored by Charlie Rangel (D-NY). He made the announcement by sending a sponsor letter to The Rehabilitated Project ("TRP") in which he thanked the TRP for bringing the bill to his attention and he added, "I share your interest in reducing recidivism and helping ex-offenders succeed."



Becoming a cosponsor of the Second Chance Act is right in line with his character. Congressman Filner, who has a 45-year history of being in the forefront of progressive political causes, first caught the nation's attention in 1961 when he was a "Freedom Rider" and was jailed in Alabama for two months during the tempestuous Civil Rights Era of the 1960's. As a student, he worked as a member of the Cornell Daily Sun, the student newspaper and graduated from Cornell in 1963 with a degree in chemistry. He also earned his doctorate in history of science from the same school six years later. Shortly after earning his PhD, he moved to San Diego, becoming a history professor at San Diego State University. He resigned his position in 1992 to run for Congress.



Filner, a fearless campaigner and one of a mere handful of the original, remaining Freedom Riders, was long interested in politics, serving as a staffer for Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota in 1975 and for Congressman Don Fraser, also of Minnesota, in 1976. He also served as a staffer for Congressman Jim Bates from the San Diego area in 1984.



He now is the ranking Congressional Member on the Veterans Affairs Committee where he is deeply involved in working to resolve the current issues which American veterans are suffering under due to the consequences of the Iraq War.



Rangel's Second Chance Act is designed to reduce recidivism by striking at the heart of the beast - employment. As Rangel stated on the floor of Congress, the American penal system literally drives good people into prison because they are forced to disclose prior convictions, even if decades old and unrelated to the proposed employment. HR 623 would permit expungement of a criminal conviction after an ex-offender has completed all of the imposed sentence, 1,000 hours of community service, stayed off drugs and sober and finished up high school or an equivalent GED course.



Upon passage, HR 623 will allow first-time, non-violent ex-offenders to prove by clear and convincing evidence to their federal sentencing judge that they have been rehabilitated and deserve re-entry into society. The bill also places several additional burdens of the ex-offender, including satisfying all requirements of their sentence and parole, that they have obtained a high school or GED equivalency degrees and have remained free of drug and alcohol dependency. Perhaps the most rigorous requirement is that they complete a full year of community service in order to get any relief.



Commenting on all of these conditions that must be satisfied, Rangel stated, “… this bill would apply only to individuals who have clearly demonstrated their commitment to turning themselves into industrious members of our communities.”




HR 623’s terms require that law enforcement would at all times have access to the facts surrounding the criminal conviction. And, if there is any subsequent state or federal conviction, the effect of H R 623 would be entirely negated and the prior conviction could be used as a sentencing enhancement if applicable.



The reality is that there are limited prospects for persons with criminal records. Each time they acknowledge their criminal pasts on job applications, they are likely to be turned away. H.R. 623 would remove this barrier of the past and lower the rates of recidivism by offering these individuals real opportunities for gaining legitimate employment, Rangel stated.



In other developed countries, such as Australia – which enjoys a far lesser crime rate and a greatly smaller proportional prisoner population – ex-offenders are not even required to disclose a conviction unless it is directly relevant to the specific requirements of a prospective job, or involves child molestation, and even that requirement can dissipate with the passage of time since “relevancy” diminishes with continued good citizenship, according to the Australian Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission.



“The unfortunate alternative is for society to continue to be victimized by ex-offenders who, having given up all hope of employment, resort to careers in crime. That means more broken homes, neglected children, poverty and additional burdens to taxpayers. ‘Second Chance’ is a critically important step toward rescuing our communities from the cycle of recidivism,” the Congressman added. In fact, the United States’ National Council on Crime and Delinquency states, “The US incarcerates at a rate 4 to 7 times higher than other western nations such as the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Germany and up to 32 times higher than nations with the lowest rates such as Nepal, Nigeria, and India…” and each of these countries has a crime rate but a small fraction of that of the United States.



Almost all American states have in place a system of expunging records or providing a meaningful chance for ex-offenders to rebuild their life. The federal government has no such system (See: A Federal Conviction – The Gift that Keeps on Giving). H.R. 623 will simply provide that federal ex-offenders have the same second chance as many state offenders.