My family originated from a grim part of a grim country, today known as Bangladesh, though it was in my parents' time also

At Project Return we remind our clients that their lives are no longer on pause.

If we were to devise the one mechanism that would most surely defeat an ex-offender's quest for a crime-free, productive life after prison, would it not be to bar his efforts to gain employment?

We know that stable employment is an important predictor of reentry success and the best way to reduce recidivism. Yet people are being released every day with almost no chance of making it.

If America is the land of opportunity, then people -- all people -- must be given a second chance to pursue their dreams after they have served their sentence.

Read more about the Tribune's disturbing findings here. The screening methods used to qualify babysitters for a state-run