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Amen!

Either their going to build your home if they have a job, or rob it if they don't, your choice.

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So isn't someone entitled to know about a felony DUI, I think it is pertinent, it shows a blatant disregard for others and more then likely you are a moron because you got behind the wheel numerous times driving drunk? I'm not sure I would want that person doing any work for me even if it is planting bulbs in my garden because they could surely screw that up, and while the results aren't as high stakes as DUI why should I pay for someone to f'up my garden? Perhaps I have a hard on for felony DUI but it is a serious crime.

There are distinct differences between a misdemeanor and a felony DUI indictment. A felony DUI comprises more serious circumstances than simply exceeding blood alcohol limits. Felony DUI points to habitual offenders or a driver causing bodily harm to one or more individuals. If a driver is responsible for an accident resulting in injury or death to someone else, the driver can anticipate felony charges.

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A DUI is not a felony so your circumstance is impossible. Your 10 year old rape or murder conviction is more appropriate.

Felon is a broad term, If you try to get work as a Gardner, how is your 10-year-old DUI relevant to that, if you are not driving a forklift?

No biggie, they're just taking after Obama, who's allowing felons access to your Obamacare personal financial information by working as 'navigators'.

I read the Rev. Santora's column today in the Jersey Journal touting former Gov. McGreevey's and the Mayor's prison release program (pasted below).

The story notes that a local contractor (there was actually a thread on here recently about him) from Hoboken uses ex-cons on his staff. Which brings to mind, as a consumer, do I have a right to know or ask a contractor if he/she will have ex-cons working inside my home or business as it undergoes construction?

In the numerous times that I've used contractors over the years in Hudson County, I've always checked on the background/references of the business owner, but I never stopped to ask who else was coming in to my home alongside of them.

What is key to consider is that the crimes that folks are convicted of are sometimes plea deals - and not reflective of the original crime they are accused of. So if your contractor does admit, yes, I do hire ex-cons but they're convicted of low-level offenses - is that accurate?

Food for thought - and perhaps some honest discussion.

Santora: Alleluia! New support for released inmates

From Jersey Journal

Former Gov. Jim McGreevey may have shelved temporarily ? or permanently ? his desire to become an Episcopal priest. But he has taken on the mantle of an Evangelical preacher as he goes about touting the dogma of helping released prison inmates reintegrate into society.

As head of Jersey City?s Employment and Training Program, McGreevey conducted nothing short of a tent revival at the pinnacle of the Mac Mahon Student Center at St. Peter?s University last Holy Thursday, April 17. Like a good Baptist preacher, he solicited a rousing ?Amen? to the salient points offered but settled for polite applause from the hundreds of judges, lawyers, corrections personnel, rehabilitation agencies and affiliated personnel.

McGreevey combined his fame and persuasiveness to attract lots of heavy hitters including ?Bishop,? I mean, Mayor Steve Fulop of Jersey City, his boss, who supports and funds this radical program. And ?Il Papa? Gov. Chris Christie, who seemed as svelte and sophisticated as ever. Shedding not only pounds but any of the scandals swirling around him, Christie spoke eloquently about his longtime support of Daytop, a drug rehabilitation program in Mendham, where he would ?see miracles happen.?

And McGreevey produced some himself as many of his adherents gave testimony about how they turned their lives around after stints in prison. None were more heart-wrenching than former NBA star Jayson Williams, who sat tall, dead center, among the 400 guests until it was his time to make his public confession, perhaps for the 250th time, he said, about his regrets, his heartaches but also his desire to help others.

While his rap sheet was well-known, the panel of lesser known converts told their stories of downfall and redemption.

Jason Scala, a Jersey City native, now has his own Hoboken construction company, which employs released inmates. He supports the residents of the Salvation Army rehab program near the Holland Tunnel and is active with Narcotics Anonymous. Matthew Mercuro said, ?Prison is easy, it?s the anxiety and fear after you get out.?

And that was the focus of the program: ?surviving incarceration and struggling with freedom.?

U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman described an innovative federal court program with meetings every two weeks in the Newark courtroom of Judge Madeline Cox Arleo, a Jersey City native. She presides over the ?ReNew? re-entry court where released inmates come before her and share how they are coping with freedom. They look for practical signs ? she called it ?reading between the lines? ? that might start the downfall leading to someone being sent back to prison. Are they eating well, what?s their housing like, do they see their families?

McGreevey labeled this and the local Jersey City initiative a ?moral charge.? Fulop even cited Pope Francis and his desire ?to make people whole again? as the raison d?etre to reverse what he said was ?the two-thirds failure rate? for recidivism.

Reminding all that it was Passover, he also referred to the Old Testament prophet Micah ?who put the quality of mercy and justice as requirements.? Superior Court Judge Sheila Venable, who presides over the Hudson County drug court, touted the success rate of 447 participants who would have been prison-bound and boasted that ?we are No. 1 in the state for admissions and retentions.?

Christie spoke of his pro-life stand but then challenged his fellow conservative leaders to realize that ?there is a great need out of the womb, but all the way along.? Heralding his support for drug rehabilitation as opposed to incarceration, except for violent offenders, he said, ?life is precious for every moment that God gives us, for the drug-addicted teen just as it can be for any of my children.? And his youngest son, Patrick, was sitting in front of him.

That familial connection might be the underlying message and necessity of this program: incarceration and recidivism ruin families and the community. Implicit in all the talks and exhortations and reliance on religious lingo to get the message across is that freedom is not free without support.

Christie also said something that could border on the confessional: ?There is a class of people who will benefit much more from reaching out a helping hand to them, and understanding that we?re all flawed and we all make mistakes and we all at some moment in our lives need help.? Sounds like a mostly mea culpa to me.