Mr. Christie said the president is coming to “take credit” for the state’s dropping crime rates “because it’s one of the few places in the country where that actually is happening, when he has absolutely nothing to do with it”.
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“Not only I think is this a bit of a slap in the face to the president, it really is a slap in the face to the lieutenant governor”, Harrison said.
“Everyone has a role to play, from businesses who are hiring ex-offenders to philanthropies who are supporting education and training programs”, Obama said on Saturday.
Representative Elijah Cummings, a Democrat behind that bill, praised Obama’s actions.
The president also announced that federal agencies would implement a “ban the box” policy. It means that reporting a prior conviction in a job application would no longer automatically disqualify someone applying to work for the federal government.
Companies as diverse as Koch Industries and Walmart have voluntarily eliminated the criminal history box from job applications, as have more than 100 counties and cities and 19 states, including California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, according to the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for the rights of lower-wage workers.
Last week in Chicago, Obama met with police chiefs from around the country and encouraged them to help change a system where nonviolent offenders could spend years in jail. He was joined throughout the day by U.S. Sen. Cory Booker and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.
President Obama has issued an executive order created to ease the transition of former inmates back into society, reports The Atlantic.
Marilyn Reyes Scales has a job now after years of unemployment.
It is one of the largest rehab centers in New Jersey, and Obama, after touring the facility and meeting several residents, called it “a model for the good work that is being done sporadically around the nation”. I go one-on-one with President Obama on his new mission.
He said he would travel to Newark today “to highlight efforts to help Americans who’ve paid their debt to society reintegrate back into their communities”. The programs are involved in helping prisoners get jobs in the high tech industry as coders and software developers. “If he doesn’t have enough money to eat that week, they’re seeing if they can scrape something together”.
Rosario it was “surreal” to hear Obama talk about his life as an example for others. “There were times when I was younger and maybe even as I got a little older, but before I had a motorcade – where I got pulled over”, he noted. “It was an inspiration”.
But the visit also underscored Christie’s absence at another event about 90 miles away in Newark.
Christie, who is seeking the GOP nomination for the presidency, accused Obama of not acting strongly enough on behalf of law enforcement nationwide.
Senator Sandra Bolden Cunningham (D-Hudson) issued the following statement today on the announcement by President Barack Obama to unveil new measures that would help reduce discrimination in the hiring process for former convicts seeking employment.
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White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Monday that Christie’s comments “have been particularly irresponsible, but not surprising for somebody whose poll numbers are closer to an asterisk than they are double digits”.
