Last night we passed Bill 2023-53 dealing with re-entry of inmates back into the community. Specifically, it deals with the issuance of state ID’s, driver’s license or photo camera card to inmates who are released from our facility.
Why is this important?
Our goal as a County is to set folks up who have spent time in the county jail to NOT return to the facility. We want to reduce recidivism. That’s the goal. A well documented problem these folks deal with is that Individuals reentering society often face barriers to obtaining housing and employment due to difficulties acquiring something as simple as identification.
Remember, the County Jail is generally a shorter-term facility used for individuals awaiting trial or sentencing, or those who have been sentenced to serve a short period of time.
In the majority of cases these are not hardened criminals. These are folks who deserve a shot at returning to society as seamlessly as possible. Something as simple as setting them up with ID’s goes along way toward that goal.