The Law: Jaycees in Prison

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FBI List. Many convicts who have known only the underside of society most of their lives would greet Hill's statement with instant skepticism. Malcolm Christensen, 35, formerly on the FBI's most-wanted list for crimes in eight states that ranged from kidnaping to assault, had his doubts when he entered the Jaycees. Now he is the president of the chapter in Maryland's maximum-security prison and goes about unguarded on his Jaycee business outside the prison walls. Christensen admits that he first became interested in the program three years ago, "just to get out of the cell and drink coffee and have cookies." He soon got serious, and the Jaycees recently awarded him the organization's highest individual honor, an "international senatorship."

Christensen linked up with David Gibbs, 34, a convict who has also been on the FBI's most-wanted list, to push a youth-counseling program outside the prison. Among more than 100 projects that Christensen's chapter has started is a crime seminar inside the prison that brings together inmates, state legislators and university professors. In such gatherings, Christensen and Gibbs discovered, they are accepted as equals. "I even call judges and other prominent men by their first names," says Christensen.

From Prison to Politics. For some convicts, the average $12 annual dues (the same as on the outside) can buy a ticket to a new life. A prime example is Gary Ihly, 27, who was active in the Happydale Jaycees while serving time for second-degree assault in Washington State's corrections center at Shelton. After his release, Ihly joined the Olympia Jaycees (he is now vice president of the chapter) and worked hard for passage of prison-reform bills that established a convicts' furlough program and increased inmates' pay. For his legislative efforts, Ihly was invited to Governor Dan Evans' office for the bill-signing ceremony. Now a programmer for the state's department of social and health services, Ihly hopes that he will be the first ex-convict elected to the Washington house of representatives. "After all," he says, "when you have gone from prison to the Governor's office in 20 months, anything seems possible." Jaycee involvement often helps in getting a parole—and staying free thereafter. Jaycees estimate that their ex-cons have only a 10% recidivism rate, compared with the more than 50% for alumni of federal prisons.