Washington ? Ken Howard was lucky. Fresh out of prison, he managed to land a good job with a national program to make better fathers out of men.

Howard didn’t fall back into his old life selling drugs, which makes him unique: Two of every three inmates will be arrested within 36 months of leaving prison, and one of every two will return to prison.

“You have to meet with your probation officer, who’s going to tell you you have to get a job and a place to live in two weeks,” said Howard, who lives in Kansas City, Kan. “Each of those things requires an ID and a Social Security card.

“(But) you don’t have any of the tools it takes to start to be successful on the outside when you come out of the Department of Corrections,” Howard said.

Study after study shows the key to staying out of trouble is jobs. Ex-offenders face a series of hurdles in trying to find work; aside from employers’ reluctance to hire people with criminal records, ex-offenders frequently don’t have even the basic documents needed to fill out a job application.

A number of government officials and agencies are searching for ways to help ex-offenders make a fresh start. Besides battling unemployment, they also want to fight drug and alcohol abuse, and help ex-offenders find housing.

Officials talked about the problem recently at a conference in the nation’s capital sponsored by the Council of State Governments and its Re-Entry Policy Council. The group is reviewing hundreds of recommendations and successful programs, and it will publish a report early next year.

The issue is a matter of public safety and of financial cost to taxpayers. An estimated 625,000 offenders will leave prison this year, and most of them will have no supervision upon their release, according to the council.

If they don’t re-offend, communities will be safer, and taxpayers won’t be paying for their incarceration a second time.

“This isn’t rocket science; we know this population exists, and we know that we should be involved,” said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., who gave the keynote address to the conference.

Ken Howard stops outside his office in Overland Park. Released from prison, he was hired to a job with a national program to make men better fathers. Howard didn't fall back into his old life selling drugs, likely because he had a steady job. Numerous studies credit gainful employment with successful transition to life outside of prison.

Self-esteem, respect

The government has a moral obligation to make sure inmates are in better condition when they leave than when they came in, said state Rep. Jan Pauls, a Democrat who serves on the Kansas Sentencing Commission.

“There are very few people we’re going to lock up and never have returned to their home community,” Pauls said.

Mike Begnaud, a small businessman from Kansas City, Mo., said work helped overcome all the other challenges facing former inmates.

“There are so many wonderful faith-based organizations that reach out to families with food, shelter, clothing, medical care, in some cases transportation, schooling,” he said. “But if a family is going to get back together and stay together, an offender has to have meaningful employment. He gets back his self-esteem, respect and his family, and that’s critical.”

It’s also practical, Begnaud says: “If we don’t put them to work, they’re going to commit another crime. If they’re working, they’re not going to be stealing your pocketbook or your car. They’re going to be buying a pocketbook or a car.”

Finding work again

Begnaud speaks from experience: He went to prison about 20 years ago for mail and wire fraud. Afterward, family and friends stuck with him, and eventually one employer gave him a break.

Those breaks are hard to come by, Begnaud said. Criminal records can present a lifelong series of barriers to finding work. Begnaud is working with several local agencies to start his own employment agency for former offenders.

Finding work was tough for Howard, who had a college degree but at first could only find jobs “slinging boxes.” He connected with the fathering program because he made connections as a participant in Prison Fellowship Ministries, the Christian rehabilitation program started by convicted Watergate figure Chuck Colson.

Participants in the program Howard joined live in a separate prison unit and follow a curriculum of religious study, other education and work for up to 18 months. After an inmate’s release, the program continues for at least six months with guidance from a mentor and local church support.

Howard hopes the government will continue the Bush administration’s emphasis on faith-based efforts, because he said it worked.

“You’re not the same human being anymore,” he said. “You have that stripped away from you, and then all of a sudden here comes this opportunity where you’re surrounded by people who really care about you who want to invest in you.”

Besides opening doors for faith-based programs, advocates are pressing for a number of other reforms.

Rights for convicts

They want new laws that would require employers to consider criminal records only as they relate to specific jobs and to consider how serious and how long ago the offense was. They also want education and training made more available, which means repealing federal prohibitions against college loans or Pell grants for ex-offenders.

Begnaud and Howard are part of a just-beginning effort in the Kansas City area to coordinate dozens of groups that help inmates and their families. The group began meeting in June, and more than 40 agencies already are involved.

“We’re not saying reduce sentences or anything like that,” said Shirley Miller, executive director of the Kansas City, Kan.-based Gracious Promise Foundation, which works with children and families of inmates.

“We’re just saying they are coming out, and we can’t just put our heads under the sand,” Miller said. “The more we can help keep the stress off them and help them be successful, the more chance they have in not going back or reoffending.”