An array of local and national leaders came to The Hub on Sept. 15 to cut the ribbon on what they hope will become a model prisoner reentry program for the nation. The Hub is the core shopping center in the heart of Ward F in Jersey City, around which Jersey City officials have been trying to build a new, modern, and more positive community.
Over the past few months, officials have gathered at that location to announce plans for the city to construct a City Hall annex there, as well as other services. The most recent appearance, however, was to inaugurate Martin’s Place, a community center that will provide a variety of services to local residents, but especially those who are in need of prisoner reentry.
Former speaker of the House of Representatives and current Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi joined a host of notables including U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D –NJ), Representatives Albio Sires (D – 8th Dist.) and Donald Paine, Jr. (D – 10th Dist.), Gov. Christopher Christie, and former governors Brendan Byrne, Tom Kean and Jim McGreevey.
“We all make mistakes every day.” – Gov. Christopher Christie
____________
“This is a national moment of significance,” Pelosi said. “This isn’t just going to help here in Jersey City, but elsewhere, now that we have proven it can be done. This shows that if you give people the tools they need, they can have their dream. Martin’s Place is not just a place of brick and mortar, but a place in our hearts.”
“Martin’s Place is built on sound scholarship,” said Cornell Brooks, the national president of the NAACP. “This is the first rung on the ladder to reentry and redemption.”
He said the center will help people find dignity by providing services for recovery, help in locating a place to live, and finding employment.
“When you have a job, you’re getting more than just a paycheck,” Brooks said. “The real payment is in dignity and self worth. People are more than just the sum of their mistakes. If Martin’s Place does what it is supposed to do, it will allow people to keep their dreams intact.”
Mayor Steven Fulop said the center will provide assistance finding housing, jobs and drug treatment. But the site will not be devoted exclusively to ex-prisoners seeking to re-enter society, but also residents of the city who also need services.
Martin’s Place, Fulop said, would break the cycle of incarceration in which ex-offenders go back to prison after a short time.
Fulop, who is credited with establishing and expanding second chance programs in Jersey City, said the show of force that included power politicians from both political parties demonstrated bipartisan support for programs like this.
Christie, who appeared at St. Peter’s University earlier this year for a conference on second chance program, recently pushed to get bail reform in the state that would reduce or eliminate bail for people arrested on minor non-violent crimes, while denying bail to violent criminals that pose a real danger to society.
In a surprising agreement, Christie and Pelosi said it was important to allow to judges to have more discretion in dealing with individual cases and not tie their hands through mandatory sentencing requirements.
“We all make mistakes every day,” Christie said. “There will be people who don’t want help, and we can’t help them. But there are those who want it.”
“We have to do away with three-strikes laws and mandatory sentences,” Pelosi, referring to laws such as those in California that impose a life sentence on anyone convicted a three felonies. “We have to give judges much more discretion.”
Christie, who is a pro-life Republican, went on to say: “If we’re pro-life, then we should be pro-life throughout a person’s life, not just in the womb where they haven’t had a chance to disappoint us. But we need to help those who we might not be too comfortable with. It’s easy to throw people in prison and forget about them. But what we don’t realize is that those people are going to come back into society. How do we want to meet them the next time? Do we want them to be better than they were before they went to prison, productive people with jobs, who volunteer in the community, who raise their children, and make their community a better place?”
McGreevey and Christie talked about the issues briefly, touching upon some of the things needed to help prisoners return to society, such as housing, drug treatment and employment.
“Drug addiction is a disease,” Christie said. “You don’t treat a person with a disease in jail, you send them for treatment.”
McGreevey said the Jersey City programs for reentry are part of Fulop’s pledge to have “One Jersey City,” one in which everyone from every part of the city benefits from the new prosperity.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.