Two of the region's federal judges want to get more involved with helping offenders return from incarceration.

"Prison can't be the entire answer. There has to be some additional way we maximize the chances they don't re-offend," said James Jones, chief judge for the Western District of Virginia.

"If we're going to put these people away ... if it is possible, we have an obligation to bring them back in a meaningful way," echoed U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Wilson.

Working independently, Jones and Wilson this year asked the district's federal probation office to set up a re-entry court along the lines of a program developed two years ago in Oregon.

A pilot project should begin early next year and could eventually include other judges, Jones said.

It's too early to say exactly what a re-entry court here will look like, said the judges and Buddy Ross, who leads the district's federal probation office.

But it likely will follow the Oregon model in that a small group of offenders will meet at least monthly with the judges in addition to their regular supervision by probation officers. Representatives from the federal public defender's and U.S. attorney's offices likely will be involved as well, Jones said. The offenders will report to the judge -- and to one another -- how they're faring with employment, substance abuse problems, housing and other issues.

The idea is that offenders will benefit by more active support from the judges and from one another, from a "broader safety net, a broader social net," Wilson said.

Offenders who are succeeding may gain a small reward such as a movie pass, Jones said. A larger reward might be that after a successful year in the re-entry court, an offender would have a year cut from his supervised release, he added.

Initial results from the Oregon project are mixed, but studies have shown that more intensive supervision cuts down on offenders' rate of new convictions.

"I'm trying to come up with a more activist way to discourage recidivism," Wilson said.

The better an offender can make the transition to a stable, law-abiding life, "the better off they are as people and the better off we are as a society," Wilson said.

In discussing re-entry courts, Wilson emphasized the importance of offenders finding employment, while Jones spoke of substance abuse as perhaps the largest threat -- and also an issue that "we don't know how to handle ... in our society," he said.

"The defendant who has committed crimes because of his addiction to drugs, and we see many of these, is somewhat of a special case," Jones said.

Both judges said they hope re-entry court will let them see more positive outcomes than they encounter in their traditional roles, where they sentence offenders and see them again only if they re-offend.

"I think every judge finds it the most disagreeable part of his job to send people to prison," Jones said.

Wilson agreed. "The thing they need to know is I do care about their success," he said.