Politics
Mayor Brandon Johnson Celebrates New Leader for Office of Re-Entry as Budget Woes Continue
(WTTW News/Provided)
Mayor Brandon Johnson celebrated on Tuesday his pick to lead an expanded effort to help those returning to Chicago from jail or prison to rebuild their lives, even as efforts to nail down a budget deal remained fraught.
Chicago’s expanded Office of Re-Entry, which is part of the mayor’s office, has been led since September by Joseph “JoJo” Mapp, records show. Mapp served more than 26 years in prison after being convicted of murder and armed robbery as a teen before being released in 2020.
Mapp earned his bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University and worked as the director of re-entry for Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation, which helps victims of crime and those who have been incarcerated while providing programs for young Chicagoans on the South Side, records show.
Mapp promised to serve as a “bridge” between community organizations working to help those returning to Chicago from jail or prison and the city. The approximately 10,000 Chicagoans who return home after serving time in jail or prison every year are significantly more likely to be victims of crime or end up unhoused than other Chicagoans, according to city data.
According to a 2018 report, 43% of people released from prison in Illinois will be convicted of another crime and be incarcerated again within three years.
Johnson struggled to maintain his composure during a brief news conference after he celebrated Mapp’s hiring, saying city officials had a moral obligation to help those returning to Chicago after being incarcerated.
The city’s Office of Re-Entry, which was created by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, has been without a leader since August 2022, when Willette Benford left to serve as a senior advisor to Illinois First Lady MK Pritzker, working on women’s issues and justice concerns.
As part of the deal last year that ensured the passage of the city’s spending plan for 2024, Johnson agreed to earmark $5 million to expand to help formerly incarcerated people at the request of Ald. Walter Burnett (27th Ward) and the City Council’s Black Caucus.
A spokesperson for Johnson told WTTW News in November 2023 the office would become a separate department, but those plans were dropped.
Several scheduled new conferences planned to announce Mapp’s hiring were scrapped this fall amid a crush of emergencies, said Erin Connelly, a spokesperson for Johnson.
During Thursday’s news conference, Burnett said he promised to vote against the mayor’s budget proposal unless Johnson agreed to set aside more money for formerly incarcerated Chicagoans in the same spending plan that earmarked $150 million to care for migrants that made their way to Chicago from the southern border.
At the height of the migrant crisis in Chicago, many Black leaders were deeply frustrated and angry by the amount of taxpayer funds spent to house mostly Latino immigrants in Black communities that have suffered from decades of disinvestment, grinding poverty and rampant crime and violence.
Through Nov. 8, Chicago taxpayers have spent $229.3 million directly to care for approximately 52,000 migrants, who are all in the country legally after requesting asylum.
Burnett lauded Johnson for acting to address the inequity, and celebrated the selection of Mapp, who he said he has known for many years. Burnett spent two years in prison after being convicted of armed robbery before being pardoned. He is now the longest serving alderperson and Johnson’s vice mayor.
The mayor’s proposed spending plan for 2025 earmarks $387,849 for four positions within the Office of Re-entry, but no additional funding. Mapp earns $142,272 annually, according to a city database.
Shortly after Johnson’s news conference, 28 alderpeople sent him a letter detailing a series of proposed cuts they said were crucial to getting a deal done before the Dec. 31 deadline. If the City Council does not approve a budget by then, city government could shut down for the first time in Chicago history.
That letter called on the mayor to reduce staffing levels in his office to 2020 levels, which would eliminate the Office Re-Entry.
Ald. Stephanie Coleman (16th Ward) said she signed onto that letter, knowing it could eliminate the Office of Re-Entry, even though she pushed Johnson to expand funding for efforts to help formerly incarcerated Chicagoans and wants to see that push permanently funded.
“We have to make tough decisions,” Coleman said, calling Thursday’s announcement of Mapp’s hiring “very late.”
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
