The head of a task force on helping prisoners re-enter society said a congressional proposal to issue about $200 million in state grants for such programs would force Alabama's agencies to work together, making sure its funding and inmates don't fall through the cracks as they have at times.

The Second Chance Act is still in its committee stages, but Alabama's Re-entry Task Force is already looking at provisions of the bill as a road map for improving its existing programs. The act expects prison, parole and community corrections officials and nonprofit groups to coordinate their programs and use the money efficiently to rehabilitate offenders.

"It says, 'Get your act together, communicate with each other,'" said Kenneth Brothers, task force chairman, on Thursday.

That hasn't always been the case with Alabama's criminal justice grants.

Brothers pointed to a 2003 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice that issued $1.3 million to Alabama to help about 150 violent female prisoners re-enter the free world. Three years later, only 70 women have gone through the program and $650,000 is leftover as the grant nears expiration.

Brothers said part of the problem is that the agencies don't properly communicate their ideas, needs and concerns about releasing prisoners -- resulting in an unorganized, ineffective system.

Second Chance addresses those issues by requiring states in the application process to come up with a re-entry plan that would explain which agencies would be responsible for different programs and how they would coordinate them.

The states would also have to establish a way to measure the outcomes of their programs, such as recidivism rates, said Michael Thompson, director of the criminal justice program for the Council of State Governments.

The act addresses the main parts of inmate rehabilitation: drug treatment, job skills, housing upon release and restoring relationships within the community. It's flexible by allowing states to identify weaknesses in their individual prison systems, such as faith-based programs, drug treatment or vocational training.

Alabama, which has a 56 percent rate of re-incarceration, is desperate for such a game plan, Brothers said.

"In Alabama, when someone is released from prison for the first time, we give them a set of clothes, $10 and a bus ticket," he said. "In other words, we've set these people up to fail."

Alabama's prisons are at more than double capacity with nearly 28,000 inmates, with another 600 inmates backlogged at county jails. In 2005, 56 percent of inmates in Alabama's prisons were previously incarcerated in a state penitentiary, up from 44 percent in 2000.

The task force found that re-arrests alone are an expensive problem for taxpayers, costing $140 million a year.

There are several initiatives by community-based agencies and faith-based groups that seek to help Alabama inmates re-enter society. The state Board of Pardons and Paroles has also established a transition center for female prisoners about to be released and is planning another facility for men.

But Brothers said the state lacks a comprehensive plan to link all the efforts. Second Chance would provide guidance in how to provide in-house and out-of-prison assistance.

Helping inmates find jobs, homes and drug treatment is the best way to reduce recidivism, said Diane Williams, president and CEO of Safer Foundation, a Chicago-based nonprofit that specializes in re-entry programs.

"We have learned effective re-entry starts at the institution," Williams said. And, "we cannot stop what we're doing once they leave the institution."

Brothers agreed, saying Alabama needs more funding for in-house classrooms, vocational programs and faith-based curricula. Once released, inmates need help finding jobs and a place to live, so they are not forced to commit crimes just to survive.

"We have a choice," Brothers said. "We can either help them figure out how to re-enter and be law abiding citizens or we're going to perpetuate and exacerbate the problem."

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