Hey Andrew, Yesterday in the Inky was an interesting article about the police commissioner, Sylvester Johnson. He believes the stop and frisk policy would be a disaster. His focus is how this will turn the clock back on police/community relations and destroy, perhaps in months, the gains which have taken years to forge. He cites the recent request for community volunteers and getting 10,000 people to show up as evidence of improving relations.
I have not seen details of this $10,000 tax credit first alluded to in the primaries. In my experience, this tax credit strategy sounds much better than it turns out to be. Over a decade ago, I looked for employers for individuals with chronic substance abuse disease. I think all those I worked with counted as ex-offenders too. The employers weren't interested in the federal tax breaks available. As a large industrial janitorial contractor explained to me, when the details come out: there is so much work and little hope for actually qualifying. This same employer was very interested in the program I was offering to help bridge the gap to employment. For 6 months, I maintained case management services for the referrals with an up-front agreement for three-way open communication to assist the individuals maintain their jobs. My referrals succeeded very well but in almost all cases minor problems arose that could have easily caused termination in those first six months. Now does this reward only kick-in after the first six months of employment? That would suggest to me lots of hoops for legitimate employers, lots of fraud, and very little impact on maintaining employment or reducing recidivism. The intervention I worked on was a small pilot project but was successful because it was a good design based on previous empirical evidence not sound bites. Unfortunately, there is no political will among the people to expand good policy when sound bites are available to our political leaders. I believe these tax break strategies are akin to "creaming." The individuals most at risk for criminal recidivism will be those most at risk to lose their jobs in the first six months. These strategies look like some incredible attempt to solve the problem around elections yet do almost nothing for the problem while distracting society from looking at the underlining problems and implementing sound policy. Then, the reports come about the brilliant plan failing because the individuals are beyond all hope. I've seen this pattern repeat so many times that now the fear in society has become so extreme that we are considering policies to end civil liberties and the bill of rights for the majority of people/criminals in our midst. I'm sorry I feel compelled to disagree so strongly with something that sounds so positive. I would very much like to see the full plan. If the details for the employers are not available, I will continue to dismiss it as political rhetoric and poor policy. I saw this tax credit suggested in the primary without any details which I could find. Andrew you seem good at this. If you can get the details, please share. I'd love to change my mind or get folks to talk to the next mayor about the problems I outlined. Thanks, Glenn --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > I don't know if anyone else made it to Michael > Nutter's community forum the > other night, but he mentioned a bill that I believe > will be before city council > this week. Somehow it had escaped my notice thus > far. It calls for a $10,000 > credit against the business privilege tax for > companies that hire ex-offenders > for 6-months or more. He also cited a staggering > 72% recidivism rate in the > city. The proposal was extremely popular with the > crowd, and he couldn't > resist adding a couple of pull-up-your-pants > applause lines at the end. I > posted a video clip here: > > http://malcolmxpark.org/?p=494 > > Andrew > ---- > You are receiving this because you are subscribed to > the > list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive > information, see > <http://www.purple.com/list.html>. > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
