Today marks three years since the first column with this pitch appeared, and we have had more than 6,500 contacts with men and women seeking drug treatment or help in getting people with criminal records off the street and finding a job. (It might be close to 7,000 now, but I no longer keep count.) That doesn't include hundreds of letters from men in prison seeking information about re-entry services and jobs once they get out of prison.

We still mail or e-mail our info packet to those who call (410-332-6166) or write asking for it. I am way behind in answering prison mail but hope to catch up this summer, with the help of a college intern.

I have not had time to track results so I don't know, precisely, how many guys have found work.

All I know is, some have -- the ones who've kept in touch. Some even call now, as Amin Fareed did the other day, to share info about job prospects for others. One man, a successful Towson accountant, started a new business to put ex-offenders to work, a truck wash off I-95.

It doesn't work out for everyone -- either because they haven't dealt with their drug problems, or because they get tangled up with old "friends" from the street, or because some companies knowingly hire ex-offenders for a few months then dump then when their background check comes through, showing convictions. (I haven't quite figured out why that happens except that, in some cases, official background checks take time and employers need help right away.) I know at least one man who contacted us ended up as a homicide victim. Another man who contacted us, in 2005, for help for his son has seen that son convicted in a city homicide. The mother of a drug addict who contacted us two years ago wrote me a letter recently, reporting his suicide.

I would like to hear, in particular, from Arto Dixon and Harry Calloway -- if you are still out there.

Still missing are the voices of state leaders, starting with the governor, in imploring businesses to consider hiring ex-offenders and not barring them from a second chance to make it in this society. With the economic down-swing we're in now -- month after month of job losses across the nation -- it's only going to get tougher again.