A.G. Gancarski
On Wednesday afternoon, one of the highlights of the two day Operation Reform conference in Jacksonville was a bipartisan mayoral panel, moderated by Van Jones with Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, and Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver G. Gilbert III.
As one might expect, the panel, thematically focused on the modest goal of “banning the box,” veered into other concerns, ranging from righting established social wrongs to implementing principles of restorative justice… and name checking Jack Abramoff and Mother Teresa along the way.
[A note: The “ban the box” campaign refers to the “criminal history” box on job applications; its removal (as happened on the federal level via Executive Order earlier this month, and in Georgia earlier this year) would remove barriers to workplace participation by reformed criminals. With estimates that 1 in 4 Americans has been incarcerated (a subject worthy of discussion in and of itself, with regard to the American prison industry), banning the box allows a significant pool of job candidates to be considered for their qualifications, not their criminal history.
The question can still be asked, but not on the application, but during the interview process down the line.]
In his opening remarks, before the panel began, Curry mentioned that, years ago, a young lady he had known and recommended for a job was rejected, because of a felony when she was 19, related to credit cards.
As a citizen, he didn’t know what to do about it.
As candidate, then mayor, he realized that he could be part of the solution.
During the panel, Curry described the “epiphany” as a “personal issue… about families.”
“One of my biggest investments is in at-risk kids,” Curry said, and when an ex-offender can’t get employed, it leads to stark choices for those trying to raise families.
For Gillum, the issue is every bit as personal.
As one of seven children from a blue collar background, Gillum had a brother who “did time.”
“It’s very easy to demonize,” Gillum said, when “all you see is a check box.”
When his brother got out of jail, he had to do whatever it took to support his family, including itinerant work such as detailing cars.
Mayor Gilbert, meanwhile, is only the second mayor of his majority African-American city, which was incorporated in 2003.
“You can walk through our public works system and talk to people who did time,” Gilbert, a former prosecutor said, describing them as people who “returned home” and merit the chance to acclimate to society.
“You don’t exile people indefinitely,” Gilbert added. “It’s incumbent on us… to provide pathways for them to return to society.”
Curry then spoke again.
“The wrong side of this argument would suggest that if you engage on this, you’re soft on crime. If all we’re doing is adding more police officers,” Curry added, the same conditions will recur, and children will be left behind.
A job, meanwhile, is about “purpose” and “opportunities for family and children.”
Gillum spoke on the subject of “adult civil citations,” so successful that they could mandate a reduction in courthouse staff, as well as a “community connections” program rooted in restorative justice.
The latter program has only a 6 percent recidivism rate, a success by any metric.
“It’s difficult to talk about reentry,” Gillum added, “when we don’t talk about restoring civil rights.”
Mayor Gilbert then addressed the issue of “people who have come back home who have not left out their old ways.”
Then Gilbert added that “banning the box is the lowest bar.”
Without “preparing people for reentry,” removing the underlying issues ranging from addiction to illiteracy, the solution is still in front of policy makers.
Curry, describing himself as a “fiscal conservative,” has evolved toward an understanding of the need for social programs.
He cited John Peyton’s Jacksonville Journey, which he has revived in rhetoric, and in practice.
“Those programs, the last few years, they weren’t defunded, but they weren’t taken seriously,” Curry said, ameliorating a campaign posture, however slightly.
From housing to reentry, Curry added, city leaders have to “step up.”
Jones then asked Curry how he posits these arguments in tougher rooms.
Curry mentioned his commitment to at-risk youth and adults who have been in trouble.
“I had my personal experience with one person in the private sector,” and when running for office, he saw things that he didn’t know existed, in some of the most forgotten and neglected areas in Jacksonville.
Now, he’s taking these stories into “board rooms” and other places where they might not have been heard before.
And he’s not encountering resistance.
For Gillum, a self-described “liberal,” he too has had conversations with the Chamber types, who bristle at statistics that point out Tallahassee’s issues with economic disparity.
“When we’re talking about crime in our community… it’s because we don’t want our city written up as one of those places where it’s tough to do business,” one of those places typified by “economic and physical segregation,” Gillum added.
Jones brought the conversation back to “redemption” of criminals.
For Gilbert, “the time to have those conversations is right now.”
“I look at crime differently because I was raised in an area where I saw some degrees of crime,” Gilbert said.
“My uncle used to say the streets are going to eat… if people don’t have a path to provide for themselves, they will find a path,” Gilbert added.
Gillum, on the subject of redemption, quipped that “they can be redeemed; Jack Abramoff was teaching ethics in my city yesterday.”
Then he pivoted back to the LGBT movement, which has advanced via “unlikely allies,” and has served as a model for him on other initiatives, including employment of at-risk youth.
The program was a success the previous summer, and employers supplied the “narrative” and became the “acolytes” for these programs, which allow “hungry” kids to rise from adversity and “change the trajectory of their lives.”
Curry then announced that he will roll out programs in the months ahead, a “big community call to arms,” in which he will ask everyone in the community to engage with an at-risk youth.
Paraphrasing Mother Teresa, Curry said that “if you’ve got someone with a need in front of you, meet that need.”
