TRENTON (Mercer) Mayor W. Reed Gusciora announced today the launch of a new Office of Returning Citizens (ORC), which will help formerly incarcerated Trenton residents secure employment opportunities, professional development training, and housing.
The Gusciora Administration’s re-entry efforts started with a change in the City of Trenton’s employment policy to access applicants’ backgrounds on a case-by-case basis rather than a seven-year lookback that would automatically disqualify them for having a criminal record. Mayor Gusciora later convened a re-entry committee in late 2019 to expand those efforts by bringing in additional expertise in all facets of the criminal justice system and specialists who deal the realities of reintegrating back into the community. The committee is made up of over a dozen leaders from local churches, advocacy groups, and non-profit agencies, as well as critical assistance from the N.J. Department of Labor and the N.J. State Parole Board.
