Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft unveils reentry plan, aims to connect ex-cons to City Hall jobs

Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft unveiled his plan to help reintegrate formerly incarcerated people back into society saying that he would restart a defunct city jobs project for young jailbirds and work to get more ex-cons hired at City Hall Kraft son of the billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft spoke to how his experience working with the formerly incarcerated population as heads of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston and his family s philanthropic arm would make him better suited to help past inmates reenter society than Mayor Michelle Wu In Boston we must do better to provide housing job training mental physical condition materials and other services to ensure those coming back to our group have the foundation they need to flourish Kraft noted Past mistakes should not define someone s future Doing this well not only benefits those who ve served their time it strengthens families and communities and helps all of Boston Kraft unveiled his plan Thursday while flanked by about residents who previously served prison time at a press conference he convened at the Iron Workers Local Union hall in South Boston The union has endorsed his candidacy for mayor but did not take part in his press event His plan he revealed involves reestablishing Operation Exit a city initiative that he says began under the Marty Walsh mayoral administration as a way to deter violence and provide system-involved youth with pathways to jobs after incarceration particularly in the trades web-development and culinary arts fields Kraft announced the effort which he helped to fund during the Walsh administration was ended by the Wu administration a sparse years ago That was a mistake Kraft mentioned Kraft also outlined his plans to create -day reentry plans for every person prior to their release from incarceration form a Boston reentry setup that would include partnerships with Roxbury Society College and other local higher instruction institutions for pathways to certificates and diplomas and establish a national reentry task force to coordinate and share best practices with other big-city mayors The longtime philanthropist commented his plan would reestablish Boston as a national model for reentry programs as he declared it was under the Walsh administration He shared statistics that he explained show the city with employees is one of the largest employers in Boston but an estimated one in city jobs remain vacant If elected Kraft declared he would form a commission to examine what areas of city cabinet could benefit from hiring formerly incarcerated people who ve demonstrably turned their lives around For me this is an issue about more than compassion for people who are reentering our city Kraft stated It s also about doing what s smart doing everything we can to give this neighborhood the best chance of finding stable employment and careers And becoming advocates for deterrence is also the best thing we can do for our neighborhoods our families and our kids Mayor Wu hit back at Kraft at an unrelated event Thursday saying his attacks on her administration s reentry work and outcomes are more of the same This is nothing new from this campaign Wu commented It s more irresponsible Kraft macaroni bologna disrespecting the hard work and the results that so numerous partners across the city have come together to do Wu also disputed Kraft s version of events saying that the Operation Exit effort in its former iteration was ended prior to her administration and has since been replaced by two other city programs that have built upon that work Related Articles Boston city employee charged in connection with deadly shooting allegedly lied to police Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden s office threw out disgraced prosecutor Rachael Rollins do-not-prosecute list Boston Teachers Union endorses Mayor Wu in reelection bid Boston City Council marks July by comparing Trump s presidency to pre-Revolutionary British rule Feds move to seize K restitution payment from disgraced ex-Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson One of those programs focuses on directly placing formerly incarcerated residents into city jobs which has helped to fill city job vacancies Wu declared while the other is more of a training effort that helps connect ex-cons to building trades jobs Wu announced her administration has more than tripled the budget for the city s Office of Returning Citizens a euphemism she and Kraft both used for formerly incarcerated people this week and has dedicated more than half a million dollars in grant funding to local organizations that do reentry work in this last year alone We believe in making sure that we re delivering the results Wu noted It doesn t perpetually have to be a city-branded and city-run effort We do the programs that we believe we can have the the bulk impact in but a lot of this is also ensuring that we re getting the materials out to public organizations who already have relationships have been doing this work for decades and can really deliver a lot of benefit to our locality members Boston Mayor Michelle Wu addressed Josh Kraft's reentry plan after a press event in Roxbury Mark Stockwell Boston Herald