Champaign County Reentry Council 2019

The first meeting of the year for the Champaign County Reentry Council started off with data breakdowns and ended with a bit of decorum drama. Overall the new year brings many of the challenges from last year, including the ongoing effects of the partial federal shutdown.

There was a lot of discussion on improving data representations for the reentry population and linkages to needs and services. One of the goals of the Reentry Council is information sharing between the various participating organizations, many of which use professional jargon and shortcuts within their agencies that can be difficult to understand by other agencies or lay people from community organizations. The executive committee will be taking input from today's meeting to adjust the work project for data presentation.

A proposal for a reentry transitional housing program was discussed including a draft plan for consideration by the Housing Authority of Champaign County and HUD. It would be targeted at those reentering with unstable housing situations. The program is modeled after a shelter program collaboration between the United Way and the Regional Planning Commission that helped transition people from shelters to landlords over time. It had case managers to help clients meet the demands of the voucher program requirements.

In this proposal shelters for men and women provided by local organizations such as First Followers and Women in Transition mentioned in the discussions today. The program would have an initial HUD exemption to work requirements due to the haphazard nature of reentry, including severe difficulties in getting work, or even getting the required documentation to get a valid ID to get access to needed services (a seriously a convoluted nightmare in and of itself). The idea is to eventually transition them successfully to landlords and reduce common factors in recidivism (housing, employment, service needs).

The meeting ended on the old business of First Followers' James Kilgore's recommendation that the Reentry Council's executive committee ensure that at that level of decision making at least one member organization represents affected communities such as First Followers. This had caused some concern and consternation from the Champaign County Board representative Jim McGuire who believed that it was a move to make the Champaign County Reentry Council effectively dominated by one reentry council organization in the area. I asked him about it after it came up during a by-laws discussion previously. He explained his concerns like so:

I would like to let you know that I like the work that First Followers does as a community Re-entry program they have access to the community we may not have. They also both of course advocate for their program and fundraise for their program directly in the community separately from the “Re-entry” program we all are part off. Now it seems they want to have a seat on the executive board to have some sort of executive direction over this Re-entry program also.

The co-chairs had attempted to split the difference it seemed by using more general terms for an additional executive committee member with lived experience by using three criteria:

1. Illinois Department of Corrections or Champaign County Jail experience.
2. Willing and able to make the additional time committment.
3. On a path towards success.

Kilgore pointed out that it wasn't really what he had in mind as he felt that his organization was specifically ideal for a selection decision given their history and involvement on the issue in the community. Co-chair Lenhoff and McGuire explained that this would likely have that very effect in spite of the general language.

Kilgore pressed his concern that the language doesn't appear to distinguish between someone with lived experience versus a decision maker within a represented organization with lived experience and/or representing the interests of affected communities.

McGuire appeared to accuse First Followers of some sort of take over attempt, which elicited denials from Kilgore and a breakdown of decorum as McGuire repeatedly talked over the chair trying to restore order and eventually walking out. Somewhere in there the discussion was effectively tabled. The meeting adjourned soon afterward when things had settled down a bit.

The nature of criminal justice reform inherently places people with diverging philosophies and passions in a room together to build trust where distrust typically reigns. As a naturally stubborn and obnoxious person myself, I believe I am inordinately restrained by decorum rules. When passions or tempers get the best of us, however, it tends to renew the appreciation for civility and parliamentary mundanity (at least among a majority of a quorum!).