Sentence served

Crime: Once prisoners are freed, who helps them get back on their feet? How much longer should they pay? | Zoe Sandvig

Pinckney

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Washington, D.C., native Michael Pinckney, 52, has a diverse resumé: supervisor of computer technologies, paralegal, waiter, chef, and federal prisoner.

It's not one that lands him many jobs—or even many interviews. Since he was released from jail in February, after serving 22 months for violating his probation, he hasn't found a single employer willing to give him a second look.

"It's a difficult transition when you go fill out an application and the potential employer sees that you have what they're looking for until you get to the point about your criminal activity and past," Pinckney told WORLD.

Pinckney is just one of the more than 700,000 men and women who are released from prison every year and face the challenge of reentering society. With 2.3 million in U.S. prisons—the highest number of incarcerated in the world—the challenge to reintegrate ex-prisoners is higher than ever. It's a challenge that Congress took on when it recently passed the Second Chance Act of 2007, a bill that will allocate $362 million to prisoner reentry initiatives over the next two years.