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Jobs are the universal solvent for many of our baked-on social problems. From drug abuse to school woes to lives wasted on crime, it usually doesn't take much probing to find a lack of gainful employment as a major contributing cause. So we applaud Cook County for its pilot program hooking up one-time, nonviolent offenders with entry-level county jobs. This is exactly the point where such intervention can do the most good. The inability of convicted criminals to find work after serving their time is a significant issue in our city, and we need to balance fairness -- a criminal record shouldn't push you to the front of the job line -- with the obvious social good of giving those who have set off on a poor life path the chance to turn themselves around. Criminal justice is cyclic, swinging its focus from rehabilitation to punishment and back. We are now moving away from the latter, which swelled our prison ranks, often for nonviolent offenses. It is very difficult for convicts to turn their lives around. But the chance should be there for those willing to make the effort. Jobs are key.