Keeping The Ex In Ex-Con
The New York Times' Adam Cohen reports on San Francisco's popular Delancy Street Restaurant, staffed entirely by ex-cons, where work seems to be working as a way to turn criminals into productive citizens:

It is...the centerpiece of the Delancey Street Foundation, where ex-convicts live together, run businesses and move to self-sufficiency. After three decades and 14,000 graduates, Delancey Street is at the intersection of two white-hot trends: the growing focus on "re-entry," the moment prisoners rejoin society, and "social entrepreneurship," using business to tackle social problems.

It is also well positioned ideologically. In a field overrun with liberal and conservative platitudes, it reflects the pragmatism of Mimi Silbert, who holds a Ph.D. in criminology from the University of California at Berkeley and who founded the group with an ex-convict in 1971. Dr. Silbert, who grew up in an immigrant family and worked on a kibbutz, drew heavily on both experiences to create an environment emphasizing hard work and mutual support.

Delancey Street's "third way" ó neither harshly punitive, nor mindlessly permissive ó has won backers ranging from Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, to George Shultz, secretary of state under President Ronald Reagan.

Maybe, when people are still in prison, we need to be a little less focused on simply punishing them for their crimes, and a little more focused on the fact that most of them will be out of prison sooner or later.