President Bush recently signed the Second Chance Act, legislation designed to provide rehabilitative services in an effort to cut the nation's skyrocketing inmate population. Without much hoopla, the stroke of his pen may have writ large a fundamental shift in thinking that promises to make our society safer by helping offenders re-integrate into their communities.

Closer to home, the Allegheny County Jail Collaborative already has demonstrated the value of offender rehabilitation. We need to expand this model to serve all jail inmates in Pittsburgh, across the state and throughout the country.

The "get-tough" mentality that fit the mood of a crime-weary public for decades has led to some startling national statistics: About 25 percent of the world's inmates are held in U.S. prisons and jails, even though we represent only 5 percent of the world's population. The Pew Center on the States recently reported that 1 of every 100 adults in the United States is incarcerated. The cost has climbed from $12 billion to $49 billion over the past 20 years. In Pennsylvania, the annual correctional system budget increased by 295 percent to $1.34 billion between 1995 and 2004.

What is more startling than the statistics is the underlying theme they reveal: The numbers are so high and the cost so astronomical because our system of locking up criminals and spitting them out to make their way in the world just doesn't work. Many released inmates, totally unprepared for life on the outside and suffering from a host of problems, quickly return to their criminal ways and get caught again. The prison and jail turnstiles spin wildly and the safety and livability of our neighborhoods spiral downward. In recent years, some 44 percent of released prisoners have been rearrested within 12 months; nearly 60 percent have been reconvicted within three years.

The Second Chance Act is federal recognition that our get-tough mindset has been disastrous. But Allegheny County was five years ahead of the curve and a system that has been working here could help fulfill the national promise of Second Chance.

The Allegheny County Jail Collaborative was started to test the theory that intensive attention by human-service agencies to offenders while in jail and as they transition back into their neighborhoods could prepare them for jobs, for higher education, for drug and alcohol rehabilitation and for building their relationship and family skills. The collaborative aimed to reduce criminal behavior and increase the chances for offenders to lead productive lives.

Eager to assess the viability of its approach, the collaborative asked the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work's Center on Race and Social Problems to study its results. Our findings surpassed all expectations.

Twelve months after release, recidivism rates of county jail inmates who received collaborative services were half those of a comparable group. In addition, countering the national pattern, there were no statistically significant differences in recidivism rates between black and white participants. The resulting annual cost savings to Allegheny County for serving only 300 inmates was estimated at $5.3 million, in large part due to reduced victimization among county residents.

The impact on the lives of collaborative participants, their families and their communities was substantial. Participants reported that because of the help they received, they found jobs, engaged in community activities and got along better with their families.

The success of the collaborative is largely due to its leadership -- Marc Cherna, director of the Allegheny County Department of Human Services; Ramon Rustin, warden of the county jail; and Bruce Dixon, director of the county Department of Health -- working closely with many nonprofit human-service agencies, including Allegheny Correctional Health Services, Renewal Inc., Goodwill Industries, Mon-Yough Community Services and Lydia's Place.

But while the Allegheny County Jail Collaborative currently is unique in the nation -- our review of 3,000 journal articles, books and reports turned up no similar program -- it can be emulated easily. It just requires leadership from the community, the corrections system and the government; it takes accomplished nonprofit human-service agencies; and it takes the societal will to believe that people can be rehabilitated, to the benefit of us all.

The national direction set by the Second Chance Act, coupled with the real-life success of the Allegheny County Jail Collaborative, may provide the best chance in decades to stop the destructive cycle of crime and ruined lives that has become America's shame.