The second time a person goes to prison it is, in more ways and in more cases than we might like to admit, our fault.

A serious proposal that would have faced up to our collective failure did not survive the recent session of the Utah Legislature, due to a combination of a $6 million price tag and a legislative reluctance to do anything too humane for felons.

But the need for the proposed Drug Offender Reform Act was brought home this week when an analysis of federal data performed by the Urban Institute concluded that the American criminal justice system is a giant failure at turning one-time criminals into law-abiding citizens.

The Legislature should revisit the issue, whether in the proposed special session set for April 20 or in next year's regular session. Clearly, DORA is needed to make sure that criminals with a substance abuse problem - which is most of them - get real treatment for their problems, in prison or instead of prison.

Otherwise, the prison gate becomes the world's most expensive, and most dispiriting, revolving door.

The report finds that 62 percent of prisoners released without monitoring or parole restrictions are arrested again for a new crime. Of the inmates who were released early after winning credit for good behavior, but were to be supervised by a parole officer, 61 percent were arrested again.

Slightly fewer ex-inmates returned to prison from the cohort that had appeared before a parole board and convinced them that they would be a good risk. Only 54 percent of them wound up back in stir.

The conclusion of those who conducted the research, and other experts commenting on it, was that neither prison nor supervised parole was doing enough to make former prisoners into the sort of people who can live within the law.

One part of the problem is that parole officers have so many cases open at any one time - often as many as 70 - that they cannot help the parolees adjust to life on the outside. All they can do is play gotcha with sometimes minor parole violations and send them back inside.

Those who most directly benefit from such programs are not the cream of our communities. But all of us will have better lives if we help once and future criminals face their demons and stay out of prison, once and for all.