County jail chaplain Richard Green is the driving force behind the Re-Entry Assistance Program. It tries to keep chronic offenders out of jail by providing a year of rent up front, along with mentoring on education and employment. REAP clients are required to pay $50 a month or 30 percent of their wages, whichever is greater, toward the rent.

These are people who have been in the lockup dozens of times. Obviously, they’re in the grip of real problems, usually drugs. Then things snowball. A stint in jail means getting fired. No paycheck, no rent money, no apartment. With no permanent address, it’s hard to get a job. Drugs or alcohol become an even greater temptation. One way or another, that leads to another stay in the clink. And the downward vortex continues to spin.

Green says REAP works. Last year, the 31 people in the program had been in jail a total of 15,000 days before entering the program. After the program, those same 31 people spent a total of 70 locked up.

He is hoping to expand the effort by getting a grant from the federal Second Chance Program. It might quadruple the number of participants and ease entry requirements. He is seeking up to $750,000, which would cost Utah County $119,000 in cash and $119,000 worth of in-kind donations.

Is it worth it? Advocates point to the payoff. Right now the people caught up in the cycle are a disproportionate drain on local resources. They take up the time of police, courts and social service agencies. And that doesn’t include the distress they inflict on their families and neighbors. Getting them back into productive lives would be a boon to the county.

Caution is well-merited, however. It’s a sad truth that well-intentioned programs can backfire. People with drug problems sometimes are experts at gaming the system to extract as many benefits as they can. The county has to take steps to ensure that people in this program are not just playing along to get cheap rent for a year.

If REAP is expanded, the county ought to get an independent audit of how well the clients do. If the data show continued success, the program should have no trouble winning ongoing support.