Stu Bykofsky: Vick got his second chance. Others less fortunate could really use one

FOR THOSE WHO are floating on a cloud of self-righteousness after drinking the Michael Vick Second Chance® Kool-Aid, here's a chance to widen your circle of compassion.

While the millionaire ex-felon got his "second chance," what about the 48,000 other Philadelphians on parole or probation right now?

They're not all unemployed, but enough are. About 80 percent committed misdemeanors, leaving roughly 10,000, mostly male, who are ex-felons, just like Vick. Many need a "second chance," a job - and they'll work for less than $1.6 million.

Many Vick apologists amused themselves by demanding of animal advocates, "Why don't you care about people?"

There's no evidence we don't, but many (not including me) condemned the Eagles' generous "second chance" to Vicious Vick.

Many, many more applauded the Eagles for giving the felonious QB a "second chance."

I ask those in the Second Chance Brigade: Is your sympathy restricted to pro athletes? How about the real people who are desperate for a break?

How about asking your boss (or looking in the mirror, if you are a boss) to find room on the payroll for an ex-offender who needs a "second chance"? I'll tell you about a couple of them in a minute.

I am not rubbing your nose in the slack you cut for Vick. I am asking you to put your jobs where your mouths are.

Back when this story broke, I wrote that I stand back from Vick because I am not convinced that his contrition is sincere, but I understood what the Eagles did. I don't like it, but I accept it because I believe in "second chances."

It's not mushy humanitarianism on my part. If we don't offer ex-offenders a way to make an honest living, they will make a dishonest living. That puts you and me in jeopardy of being hit on the head with a tire iron for our wallets or having a gun stuck in our faces.

That's why Mayor Street in June 2005 launched the Mayor's Office for the Re-entry of Ex-Offenders, which offers a $10,000 tax credit, under certain conditions, to businesses that hire ex-cons.

A very good idea. Almost 100 businesses are in the program, which has placed about 300 ex-offenders during this fiscal year, interim director Carolyn Harper tells me. She said that the program has only a 3 percent recidivism rate. The usual Philly recidivism rate is between 45 and 60 percent.

Many employers, Harper says, don't even apply for the tax break. Maybe they know good works are their own reward.