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DAYTON — Like many Miami Valley residents, Keith J. Martin is struggling to find work. He's certified in a trade and has an associate's degree. But Martin also has a handicap of his own making that's holding him back: He has spent most of his adult life in prison for aggravated robbery, receiving stolen property and burglary.

At 44, Martin is trying to turn his life around. But employers take one look at his criminal past and "won't give me the time of day," he said.

A Montgomery County task force is launching a campaign to make wide-ranging changes to the criminal justice system and to the way the outside community views ex-convicts. The purpose is to make it easier for people like Martin to stay out of trouble and contribute to society.

"We're not coddling criminals," said U.S. District Judge Walter Rice, who quietly started the Dayton/Montgomery County Task Force on Ex-Offender Re-entry about two years ago. "We're helping people who have paid their debt to society become good, productive citizens."

The task force has asked the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to allow Montgomery County to be a laboratory for re-entry techniques. It's calling on employers to give ex-offenders a chance.

Politicians from Dayton to Columbus to Washington are rethinking tough-on-crime policies that have left the nation with a large class of ex-convicts who leave prison, only to offend again. A national Second Chance Act is before Congress.

State Rep. John J. White, R-Kettering, plans to introduce two significant prisoner re-entry bills in a few weeks.

The Ohio corrections department has been working on re-entry programming since 2002, but Deputy Director Ed Rhine said it's too early to tell how well it's working.

Re-entry has become a buzzword for easing ex-convicts' transitions from prison to free society by helping them find jobs, housing, behavioral treatment and health care. Supporters envision a system in which newly convicted felons would have a plan for going straight before they go to prison.

The prisons would help educate and train convicts, and coordinated community resources would be available upon their release. Ex-convicts would have to show how well they are conforming to their re-entry plan.

Martin, who volunteers with the re-entry group Workplace ReConnections, said that kind of caring is missing from today's system.

"When I came home, nobody asked me, 'What are your goals or aspirations?'," he said. "All they were interested in was that you stay out of trouble, you drop (drug-free) urine, and you try to find a job."

Prison officials say there's evidence that the current crop of ex-offenders is more likely to commit new crimes after prison than past generations.

"We have ignored rehabilitation in this country, and recidivism rates have continued to skyrocket," White said. "We are wasting talent and wasting money if we don't take re-entry seriously.

"There's a shift away from the mindset of 'lock them up and throw away the key.' That cannot sustain itself."

Nationwide, 600,000 inmates are released from prisons annually. Ohio prisons release about 27,000 — 1,700 of whom come to Montgomery County. On average, Ohio inmates are returned to society after 18 to 24 months in prison. Almost 40 percent of released Ohio inmates return to prison within three years, housed at taxpayer expense of nearly $25,000 a year.

Re-entry services cost a tenth of that amount, Rice said. He said successful re-entry has many other benefits: There's less crime, and employed ex-offenders pay taxes, meet their family obligations, pay restitution to their victims and aid in the community's economic development.

Montgomery County Commissioner Deborah Lieberman, a task force leader, said the county spends 68.5 percent — $107 million — of its $156.3 million general fund budget on the criminal justice system.

The task force plans to seek county human services levy funding, and will be speaking with employers and other community leaders about the benefits of re-entry, Lieberman said. She acknowledged there's considerable opposition to programs for convicts.

"That's the perception of a lot of people: 'Oh, you just want to hug a thug.' "

She pointed to a recent study that found there are 21,000 jobs in the Miami Valley — albeit many of them low-paying — that are going unfilled. Those jobs, Lieberman said, present opportunities for ex-offenders.

Rhine said people with criminal records have a hard time competing with the law-abiding for jobs. But his message to employers is, "don't automatically make a presumption that this guy can't be trusted. Don't automatically impose that stigma or that label."

White plans to introduce into the Ohio House a bill that would expand opportunities for voluntary participation in faith-based programs in prison.

He also is sponsoring a bill, supported by the state prison system, that would give employers tax breaks for hiring recently released ex-offenders, establish re-entry courts to monitor new releases and eliminate restrictions that prevent ex-felons from getting licenses to work as barbers, opticians and construction workers.

It's "silly on its face" to rehabilitate prisoners, then prevent them from getting jobs, he said.

Rice said re-entry isn't a quick fix, it's a long-term commitment that will produce important results over time.

"You're going to see the positive impacts of families that contribute to the community rather than take from it," he said.

Martin's response to potential employers is "Try me."

"I absolutely did do something to put myself in this position. I have to work much harder," he said.

"I'm just asking for an opportunity to do anything. How can I be a productive citizen and provide for myself if I'm not given an opportunity?"