Hello everyone. I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where none of us is as smart as all of us.

Earlier this month, I moderated a panel at the Second Chance Forum. It was an event held at Georgetown University, focused how formerly incarcerated people re-entering general society can be better integrated into the labor force.

It was organized by the Second Chance Business Coalition, which is a group of private sector firms that have publicly committed to increasing opportunities for returning citizens to re-engage with the labor force.

I spoke with the top law enforcement officers from two states, Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, a Republican, and Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, a Democrat.

We've edited down the conversation for time, but I began by asking the

pair when they started connecting second-chance employment as something important to their overall

law enforcement work. I come from a background where when I started to practice law, it was as a

prosecutor in the Department of Justice that.

And so I knew a couple things.

I wanted to be in criminal law because to me it was fascinating the issues that we deal

with and the concept of justice and fairness. And at the same time, definitely wanted to be in the

courtroom. And so the combination of events led me to the Attorney General's office. What I have

noticed is that unless we have a broader view of the justice system, it's a little bit like being Sisyphus.

You're rolling the boulder up the hill, and it's coming right back down again, unless you can get to more of the root causes.

And so that's how I became very involved with second chances.

We'll have a chance to talk about what our office did about it, what I've been able to do about it.

And I know this.

We can reduce violent crime, and we have.

We can reduce our prison population, and we have.

We can reduce the recidivism rate, and we have. We can reduce our prison population and we have. We can reduce the recidivism rate.

And we have. But our work is truly never done. And so if we're not getting at the root causes,

if we're not giving people who deserve a chance after they've been held accountable, then we haven't done

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