The Washington Post, October 19: More broken promises on returning citizens
On July 12, 2016, the D.C. Council passed the Incarceration to Incorporation Entrepreneurship Program (IIEP) Act to provide business planning and related training, college courses in entrepreneurship, apprenticeship training, leadership and character development, financial literacy instruction and availability of access to capital.
Council member Elissa Silverman (I-At Large) praised it as a “creative approach” to engaging our “returning citizens.”
The Incarceration to Incorporation Entrepreneurship Program is a model of entrepreneurship for returning citizens that has proved highly successful around the country. These programs have changed the lives of returning citizens. Despite the bill passing unanimously by the council, and signed by Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), she refused to fund the measure in her last two budgets. And so did the council.
Members of the Working Coalition to Fund the IIEP felt confident the council would fund the program this budget cycle. Silverman, chair of the Labor and Workforce Development Committee, and Council member Kenyan R. McDuffie (D-Ward 5), chair of the Committee on Business and Economic Development, had expressed support.
Neither committee allocated funding in fiscal 2019.
Silverman suggested the National Community Reinvestment Coalition would be required to provide funding as part of an agreement with the District. The NCRC is part of an association of community organizations that “promote access to banking services, affordable housing, entrepreneurship [and] job creation.” Later, Council Member Robert C. White Jr. said the NCRC would have no impact on IIEP.
But even if we had received funding from NCRC or other outside funding, which we had been pursuing, we (IIEP) still would have needed additional start-up funding from the government.
At the April 18 budget hearing, former director of the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency Nancy Ware testified in support of the program. n the District, any legislation that is subject to appropriation is repealed if not funded in a third fiscal year. Fiscal 2020 would make three years that the IIEP has been unfunded.
Returning citizens should be a priority in the District. On average, half of the men and women who come under the criminal-justice system in the District are unemployed. Programs that directly or indirectly prevent crime save the District a lot of money by reducing crime-related costs incurred by victims, communities and the criminal-justice system. Programs that serve returning citizens yield high return on investment through low recidivism rates, job creation, increased income and businesses launched.
The coalition will work hard to find funding so that the Incarceration to Incorporation Entrepreneurship Program can be implemented, an investment that should have been funded through our tax dollars. If we truly believe in second chances, we should be willing to put money behind these proven efforts.
