A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action, Please…
Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton will not be in attendance today at the US Conference of Mayors.
You may recall that less than 90 days ago, Mayor Peyton announced his grand new initiative to reduce crime which he named, ”The Jacksonville Journey“. The major areas of focus for this program are: Education, Truancy, Dropout & Literacy; Funding; Intervention and Rehabilitation; Law Enforcement and Deterrence; Neighborhood Safety and Stability; Positive Youth Development; and Public Relations.
With the topic of the US Mayor’s Conference today focusing on Prisoner Re-entry and reducing crime in our cities, how is it that neither the Mayor, nor any of his staff are in attendance at this important event?
Check out this response to my email inquiring if the Mayor or someone from his office would be in attendance today:
Dear Mr. Longfield-Smith,
Thanks for taking the time to suggest participation at the US Conference of Mayor meeting today. Unfortunately, Mayor Peyton is no longer a member of this organization due to increasing budget constraints and the costs associated with the I.S. Conference. However, we continue to receive their literature and alerts and will pay particular attention to this. Thanks again,
Susie Wiles
Susie Wiles is the Director of the Mayor’s steering committee for “The Jacksonville Journey”.
It would appear as if this initiative is more lip service than substance. I don’t think we, as a community, are really interested in solving the issues that lead to crime, instead, we are more focused on punishing those that commit them.
One of the big stories in the Times-Union today was on the task force’s grilling of State Attorney, Harry Shorstein. They were pressing him to be tougher on crime. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that violent criminals should be punished, and put in jail. What I don’t agree with is throwing away the lives of the non-violent offenders that make juvenile mistakes. I also believe that once an offender has served his sentence, he deserves a second chance. With that second chance he should be afforded every opportunity to start life fresh.
These are people that have no place to live, no job skills, no medical care, and many times need mental health care. Without support from our communities, the surest way for them to get food and a warm place to sleep is to re-offend.
Study after study has shown that the best way to reduce recidivism rates is through comprehensive rehabilitation. Most people think that this is a handout, or that it costs too much. The reality is, the overall budget of a community can be reduced through the establishment of these types of programs.
By supplying medical care to newly released inmates and the homeless population, the overall costs of health care to the community can drop by up to 25%. How? It keeps this population from having to utilize the emergency rooms for basic care. It also reduces the number of catastrophic health care cases that every community has to pay for when the person receiving the care is from the local indigent population.
Additionally, studies show that when a newly released inmate is provided with housing, job training, employment help, mental health counseling, and substance abuse counseling, the recidivism rate drops by 20-30%.
In plain english, it is actually more fiscally responsible to provide these programs than to deny them and make these people go back to jail, or die in the streets.
This is the message I am trying to get out to the people of Jacksonville. I was hoping the Mayor was serious when he launched “The Jacksonville Journey”, but it would appear as if it was just another case of posturing for the media.
As a matter of fact, when I called the TU reporter on the Shorstein story to find out if she had heard whether the Mayor was heading to NYC or not, she informed me that she knew he wasn’t, because he was coming in to their office today. Undoubtedly to put out some more quotes on how hard they are working, and what strides they are making with “The Jacksonville Journey”.
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