nothin Candidates Line Up Behind Prison Reentry… | New Haven Independent

Candidates Line Up Behind Prison Reentry Agenda

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Keitazulu, Harp and Fernandez at the panel discussion.

They’re on board with the program.

They want more housing for the 100 people returning to New Haven from prison every month.

They want more job opportunities for them.

They want more employers to abide by the law and the spirit of ban the box,” which requires city government and contractors to wait until after a first job interview to inquire about

They believe that jobs and housing will help those returnees avoid joining the ranks of the 70 percent of ex-cons who commit crimes again.

That was the upshot of a mayoral forum Tuesday evening on prison reentry.

The Reentry Roundtable advocacy group sponsored the panel, which took place at Wilbur Cross High School. Mayoral hopefuls Justin Elicker, Kermit Carolina, Sundiata Keitazulu, Toni Harp, and Henry Fernandez attended. Sarah Russell of Quinnipiac Law School moderated the discussion.

They’ve done their time, and they deserve a second chance,” Elicker said.

The others agreed. They agreed on policy — they’d like to see the housing authority expand a pilot program that lets 20 recent ex-cons jump the 1,000-family waiting line for public-housing apartments. They largely agreed that the next mayor should help urge businesses, and give them incentives, to hire ex-cons. That makes all of us in the city of New Haven safer,” because employed, housed ex-cons are less likely to commit new crimes, Fernandez said.

The candidates did emphasize some different points, and offered some original proposals.

Fernandez, for instance, suggested pushing the state to draw from New Haven’s Construction Workforce Initiative to hire people on construction projects. The city (including Fernandez when he served as economic development chief) formed the initiative to train local jobless or unemployed people to work on city-funded construction projects. The state has a lot more construction projects than the city does, Fernandez noted. We’d be talking about thousands of more people being employed, including people coming out of prison,” since the initiative accepts them. Fernandez also suggested creating a computer database to track each of the monthly 100 people returning to New Haven from prison to track how they’re doing. He suggested as well that the city help ex-cons get pardons, to improve their employment chances.

Harp, for her part, suggested working with the prisons to offer inmates partial day releases to receive drug treatment or mental-health treatment at not-for-profits in the community so they can be better prepared to succeed once they leave prison. She also suggested helping skilled ex-cons start their own businesses.

The candidates also spoke of their personal histories working on issues related to prison reentry. Carolina spoke of taking some of his most at-risk” students at Hillhouse High School, where he serves as principal, on a field trip to the Whalley jail — to get a close-up look of what awaits them if they don’t straighten up. He also plugged the Emerge” program run for ex-cons with the support of United Way, where he serves on the board. Fernandez spoke of running the LEAP youth program and working on the city’s prison reentry initiative, Elicker of attending CompStat” community data-sharing sessions at the police department. Harp spoke of her experience in state government, including a program she helped start for children of incarcerated parents. And Sundiata spoke of …

… his time in jail.

I was in prison. I know the problem these people face. No money. No nothing,” he said.

A lot of prisoners can’t read or write, he noted. I used to write letters for guys. They paid me to write letters.”

We have to give people second chances,” he concluded.

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