Priorities
I’m proud that Council passed the Fair Chance Housing Ordinance to help returning citizens find homes and I am proud to have created and chair the Detroit Taskforce on Returning Citizens where we are working to remove the nearly insurmountable barriers to reintegration. Through this work, we are rebuilding people, families and our communities. Our successes include securing a $5,000,000 federal grant to create a “one-stop” system of resources for returning citizens and their families, coordinating with more than 20 community service organizations in the region, and holding resource fairs to bring together returning citizens, service providers, and prospective employers. We’ve also partnered with the Workforce Development Board for skills training and evaluation and with projects like “Recovery Park” to look at innovative ways to introduce returning citizens back into the workforce.
I support:
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No cost financial counseling and legal aid services.
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Free expungement.
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Directing returning citizens to felon-friendly staffing agencies.
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Job training and education post release.
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A Fair Chance at housing and employment.
Returning Citizens
When I was 6 years old, my loving, educated and hard-working father found himself in a spiral of drug abuse and repeated incarceration. That experience changed the trajectory of my life and was singularly formative in making me who I am today. Every month, nearly 200 former inmates come back home to Detroit. Nearly 75% will commit a crime again, which is one of the highest rates in the nation. For their sake and ours, we must work to make our city safer by reducing recidivism and ensuring that every returning citizen has a chance to become a productive member of society. If we don’t give citizens returning home from jail or prison a fair chance to succeed, we doom them, their families, and our community to an unacceptable cycle of incarceration.