Plan Offers New Hope for Ex-Cons to Make It on the Outside : As part of the new Lazarus Project, some of the men and women being released in Lancaster will be assigned to citizen ‘mentors’ in addition to their parole officers.

Prison has become society’s revenge. Although they are enthusiastic about sending criminals away, Americans have abandoned the idea that what happens behind the walls can prepare inmates to re-enter society. About the only believable claim made on behalf of prison is that, while there, a criminal cannot continue to do crime.

This attitude is more realistic than the hollow promise that criminals can be forcibly rehabilitated--”cured,” so to speak, of their desire to misbehave. But it is just as wrong to write off inmates as hopeless because, in fact, most of them, ready or not, do re-enter society.

Once outside, they face enormous suffering and frustration. Jobs are hard to find and low-paying. The old public service message, “Hire the ex-con,” is a sad joke.

For two years now, after a career in the military, I have had the fascinating job of preparing medium- and maximum-security offenders for the street. For the most part, I have found few men who are not willing to work and sacrifice to make it on the outside.

They don’t like prison. They would like to see their lives go other ways. They are gravely concerned about the three-strikes law that could send them back for as long as the rest of their lives for another felony.

We talk about jobs, motivation, skills and attitude. The men describe their need to reconnect with society and realize that their chances are slim. They know that jobs and possibilities are created through people. Not surprisingly, they lack connections with ordinary employed middle-class people who could help them make it--the sort of connections that most people take for granted. Instead of people who can help, they tend to gravitate toward the ones who can hurt them: drug dealers, users, other ex-cons.

I am convinced that with regular contact with someone in the normal, non-criminal world outside, many of these men can build decent lives.

This brings me to a project of mine that I believe can make a difference. It is a dream that I have been talking about at luncheon speeches for some time, with such gratifying response that it is about to come true in a six-month experiment.

This country has a huge network of service clubs, clubs, church groups and other organizations. I believe its members can be the key to attacking the crime problem.

These people know the limitations of throwing tax dollars at problems. They realize that truly great things don’t happen because of government programs; they happen because good people make individual efforts to effect change.

Under a pilot program to begin next month, some of the men and women being paroled to Lancaster will be assigned to citizen “mentors” in addition to their regular parole officers, under what I am calling the Lazarus Project. The citizens, who include two members of the Lancaster City Council, will meet regularly with the ex-inmates. In one-on-one sessions every week, they will give the parolees advice, counseling and contacts.

They will help parolees to re-integrate into society with the assistance that I hope will give them an equal chance after they have paid their debt to society.

The first group of 20 will be former minimum-security inmates, typically people who have been guilty of crimes such as drunk driving and spousal abuse.

If Lazarus were effective with 10% to 20% of those leaving prison, it would save the state enormous amounts of money in new prisons, insurance and police costs. More important, it would move away from the view that a person who commits a crime should be thrown away and forgotten. We are a better people than that.