Stephanie Tubbs Jones: “I was about to jump out of my seat in order to respond to being soft on crime. Again as a former prosecutor and judge, I…”

“I was about to jump out of my seat in order to respond to being soft on crime. Again as a former prosecutor and judge, I have served on a number of commissions with other law enforcement people. In fact, one of the great community reentry programs is actually part of our Ohio Department of Corrections under the leadership of our director. But in the community reentry program that is run by Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries, our motto is that people are more likely to act their way into a new way of thinking than think their way into a new way of acting. One of the things that we want to do is to give them an opportunity to act into a new way of thinking and to have new policies and new opportunities to do some things. The duty of many of these reentry programs is that if we do not do something, we bring offenders back into the community without mental health opportunities, without drug treatment programs, without opportunities for employment. One of the things that is really impacted by a community reentry program and the opportunity for jobs is child support. There are many offenders who are unable to pay child support because they are not working anywhere and we are paying the cost of supporting their children. Through giving them meaningful employment, we will be able to have them pay some of the cost of the children that they have fathered or mothered.…”