When President Bush signed the Second Chance Act of 2007, it seemed that the get-tough policies of the 1980's of locking up offenders for longer sentencing were changing for the better. With a projected increase of nearly 200,000 in the U.S. prison population within five years at a cost of $57 billon dollars. Our society must decide on whether it wants to release individuals who have been rehabilitated and will become functioning taxpaying members of society. Do we want to place inmates into small cages, treat them harshly and turn them into a mean bitter animal that is then release upon society to wreak havoc?  As this group of individuals from each successive generation joins their predecessors in being locked-up forever with no one being released at what point do we simply have one half of society hired to guard and take care of the other half of the population who are prisoners.  It would seem logical that the interests of society would be better served through rehabilitation, re-investing back into our communities thru re-entry programs or continuingly placing money into a Prison Industry Complex which is a waste of taxpayer's dollars.  The Second Chance Act of 2007 bill would benefit our Society & Ex-Offenders by:
   Provide hope, dignity and motivation where there is none
   Significantly reduce recidivism
   Reduce taxpayer burdens and government expenditures
   Reduce the number of felons seeking social services (welfare)
   Reducing the costs associated with housing inmates
   Reduce crime as felons would be able to find legal means of earning an
   income
   Reduce unemployment by offering W.O.T.C to employers
   Help break the vicious cycle of crime and welfare as a way of life in
   certain communities

         In closing the first step to a better society will begin with the American taxpayer who have had enough of uncommon sense principle's that don't work on crime and choose to implement real plans that will move us from a Prison Industry Complex to a viable American Society where love, compassion, understanding, peace and mutual respect for the Law will once again florish as it was meant to be.