JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Mayor-elect Donna Deegan’s administration is already getting to work on one of her main campaign promises: Resurrecting the Jacksonville Journey.
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The Jacksonville Journey was started by Mayor John Peyton back in 2008, pitched as an effort to reduce crime on the front end through community engagement, literacy and reentry programs for offenders.
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The initiative largely fell apart under the Alvin Brown administration before being rebranded as the Jax Journey under Lenny Curry’s administration.
“Under this last administration it’s very difficult to even figure out where anything is and who is in charge and there’s not a coordinated way to look at things,” W.C. Gentry said during the first meeting of the Public Safety Jacksonville Journey Review Subcommittee Tuesday.
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Gentry served on both previous iterations of the crime prevention program, and as chair of the subcommittee, he is now tasked with revamping the Jacksonville Journey once again.
He told Action News Jax reentry programs are an area where current efforts are falling short.
“When these guys get out of jail, they come here, they don’t have a job, they got no place to go, they go back into crime. And so that’s a big area that’s been lost,” Gentry said.
He’s also hoping to boost literacy programs, by offering additional training to teachers and staff at after school programs.
“But we need to work with the school system. We need to collaborate. That kind of got lost in the shuffle too along the way,” Gentry said.
Gentry also highlighted the need to collaborate with the sheriff’s office.
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“And get their input. And so, we want to be partners, not try and tell them how to do the policing,” Gentry said.
Gentry said his committee is hoping to provide some initial recommendations by next Monday, to help guide the crafting of the city budget, which must be passed in July.
“We’re on a fast track to identify some things that are most important to get that information to Mayor-elect Deegan,” Gentry said.
Beyond the Monday deadline for initial recommendations, the subcommittee plans to issue a full report in September.
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Gentry and the subcommittee members indicated they plan to invite JSO and a representative from the school district to participate in the subcommittee’s next meeting.
