Stephanie Tubbs Jones: “I have been waiting 30 years for Congress to enact meaningful reentry legislation, as I have been deeply involved in…”

“I have been waiting 30 years for Congress to enact meaningful reentry legislation, as I have been deeply involved in prison reentry programs since my days as a municipal court judge, common plea judge, and county prosecutor in Cleveland. While prosecutor, I helped to establish the Pretrial Diversion program, as well as the Municipal Drug Court program. And I am so happy to be able to say that it's my understanding that the drug court program in Cleveland is going to move from the municipal court to expand to the common pleas court so it is county-wide. Both programs, I'm proud to say, still exist and continue to help ex-offenders move on with their lives and become productive citizens. The State of Ohio has one of the largest populations of ex-offenders reentering the community, with about 24,000 ex-offenders returning to their respective communities annually. Of those ex-offenders, about 6,000 will return to Cuyahoga County, my county, and almost 5,000 will reenter in the City of Cleveland. Statewide about 40 percent of ex-offenders will return to prison. In Cuyahoga County about 41 percent will return. Such high recidivism rates translate into thousands of new crimes each year and wasted taxpayer dollars. Today I am proud to stand with my colleague Danny Davis as an original cosponsor of the Second Chance Act of 2007.”