(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – Chicago will have a new mayor come May. Some people will be watching to see if the winner will retain one of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s recent efforts to help formerly incarcerated residents.
Last year, Lightfoot created a new Office of Re-Entry to help coordinate and guide policies and services for people who have been released from prison.
The director of that office is Willette Benford, who was once herself incarcerated.
She says of course it will be up to the new mayor whether the initiative continues. But she points out some 11,000 people come home to Chicago from the Illinois Department of Corrections each year.
“They also return to a concentrated area of zip codes, about seven,” Benford tells WBBM Newsradio. “When we talk about returning residents and talk about are we going to continue to have something that will support them, I think we should just as a society, as a city, we should ask that question.”
About $13 million dollars was set aside to fund re-entry services. Will they continue? She hopes the answer is “yes.”
Helping the formerly incarcerated is the topic of “At Issue,” which airs 9:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m.
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