At the end of 2006, I left my position at the Justice Center of the Council of State Governments and moved across the country, where I came to work at Building Changes (then AIDS Housing of Washington), in part because I had admired the agency's publication, From Locked Up to Locked Out: Creating and Implementing Post-release Housing for Ex-prisoners. My work branched out into general homelessness and HIV housing primarily, but I continued to monitor the Second Chance Act (SCA), which finally passed and was signed into law in April 2008. A major battle had been won, four and half years after the bill's introduction. But no funds were appropriated - the SCA authorized grants to states and community organizations to promote successful reentry, without actually putting any money into the pot.

The House and Senate are still arguing out how much to put in - and there is always the possibility that, with so many other priorities, the SCA will be swept into a cobwebbed corner and receive no money at all. Supporters point to the records of the President and Vice President in supporting prisoner rehabilitation and "smart-on-crime" policies. And the DOJ's statement of intent to release SCA-related solicitations is a strong indication that they expect the SCA to be funded at a significant level.

But as long as the SCA has been in coming, it won't be a reality until the first funded program benefits a person who returns from prison or jail to a more hopeful future. And even that won't be the end of the line: people like us will continue to have to fight for the re-funding of these types of programs year after year, even when they have proved their efficacy and cost-efficiency (like the national Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act or the Housing Opportunities for Persons with HIV/AIDS program); even if they have hardly had a chance to generate outcomes (like Washington's own Homeless Grant Assistance Program); even if they are a critical stop-gap against human suffering in our communities (like funding for case management salaries in nearly every jurisdiction I have ever visited).

Whether or not we find any pleasure in the political battlefield, it's a critical part of making our work matter, and we must not give up the fight. I'm excited about the opportunities that SCA programs offer - I hope Washington will bring home these federal resources, and I look forward to hearing about the lives that they change.