Currently, New York offers citizens a one-time $200 stipend upon their release from stateprison.
The assistance bill, filed as New York Assembly Bill A.
He says the bill is a no-brainer opportunity to provide genuine assistance to returning citizens.
Photo of the New York State Capital Building in Albany, New York, on February 25, 2024.Thomas A. Ferrara/Newsday RM/Getty Images
So much of someone coming home is just trying to figure out who can help them.
But, if we give them nothing, its almost impossible.
So CEO helped raise roughly $24 million, the largest conditional distribution to formerly incarcerated people.
Theyre totally interconnected, Schaeffer says.
He also asserts that people made the wisest and smartest decisions with the funds.
They were, sometimes for the first time in their lives, experiencing autonomy at this level.
And they were using the resources in unbelievably creative and productive ways, he says.
He was like, Ive been the black sheep of my family.
The fact that I could step up and come through at that time, it felt so good.
But also, now, that helped rebuild trust with my sister and shes letting me stay here.
He says that the Reentry Assistance Bill would greatly benefit returning citizens.
Its not going to be one lump sum.
So that way its going to help them to budget.
He adds that the assistance will theoretically help returning citizens stay on the straight and narrow.
In 2022, he became the first formerly incarcerated individual elected to the New York State legislature.
He believes its a chance for citizens to destigmatize incarcerated people and help them seek a better life.
My whole life was stripped.
I had to go up North.
I went to prison, which is modern-day slavery.
Thats enough, Johnson says.
Why wouldnt you want to help someone thats already making an effort?
Because its not like they just going to give the money to anyone.
Its certain criteria [to qualify].
No one has any right to condemn someone for their past.
