To cap the nation’s first “national re-entry week,” President Obama issued a memo Friday to all agencies about the importance of helping former prisoners.

“America is a nation of second chance,” Obama wrote in the memo. “Promoting the rehabilitation and reintegration of individuals who have paid their debt to society makes communities safer by reducing recidivism and victimization; assists those who return from prison, jail, or juvenile justice facilities to become productive citizens; and saves taxpayer dollars by lowering the direct and collateral costs of incarceration,” he stated.