Bush Signs Into Law a Program That Gives Grants to Former Convicts

"He is deeply touched by these stories of transformation," said Towey, now president of Saint Vincent College in Pennsylvania.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto compared Bush's support of the Second Chance Act to administration initiatives to combat AIDS and malaria in the developing world, efforts to combine a moral goal with pragmatic concerns.

"It's the confluence of a belief in the power of redemption, which is something that he feels strongly about, and the practical side of it," Fratto said. "He doesn't believe our prisons should be crime factories."

Julie Stewart, president and founder of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, said she supports the prisoner reentry initiative, but she hopes that Bush will also begin focusing on easing sentencing policies that have led to record incarceration rates.

"If we're concerned [about] people coming out of prison, maybe we should think about how many people are going to prison in the first place," Stewart said. "This is the back end of the problem. We need to look at the front end."

At the end of yesterday's ceremony, Bush made an oblique reference to his past drinking and said his sobriety is a "product of a faith-based program," albeit not a government-sponsored one.

Bush has frequently referred to a drinking problem that he overcame at age 40, but many details remain obscured. He has often used his history with alcohol as a symbol of the ability to overcome mistakes or hardship. "I quit drinking -- and it wasn't because of a government program," Bush said. "It required a little more powerful force than a government program, in my case."