{"id":46130,"date":"2016-11-09T20:46:08","date_gmt":"2016-11-10T02:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=46130"},"modified":"2017-01-08T14:29:21","modified_gmt":"2017-01-08T20:29:21","slug":"a-trump-presidency-is-sobering-for-ex-offenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/a-trump-presidency-is-sobering-for-ex-offenders\/","title":{"rendered":"A Trump presidency is sobering for ex-offenders"},"content":{"rendered":"

By June Leffler<\/strong><\/p>\n

A week before the presidential election, Lacey Stolzke was released from jail after serving 225 days.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was never into politics, because I was so caught up in my drug use.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 27 years old, she\u2019s in treatment and living at Grace House, a halfway house for female ex-offenders who are recovering from substance abuse. Now, she said, she\u2019s never been more politically engaged.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy eyes are open to how the world is changing,\u201d said Stolzke. \u201cTrump is going to make it harder than it already is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"img_1419\"
Lacey Stolzke wants her seven-year-old son Isaac to learn to respect women, something she believes Trump is incapable of doing. (June Leffler\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n


\nThe women at Grace House watched the election results come in Tuesday night. It counted towards one their group meetings, credit for both their program and weekend passes to see their loved ones.<\/p>\n

Every person I talked with said they were sickened by how Trump talks about immigrants, women, African Americans and the disabled.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe degraded everybody, every nationality he disrespected,\u201d said Stacey Jackson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not of his pedigree,\u201d said Jo Ann Jones.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump said African Americans don\u2019t have anything to lose,\u201d said Connie Williams. \u201cHe\u2019s making race an issue when we are all humans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Illinois is one of 14 states that restores voting rights to felons as soon as their sentence is served. Stolzke and Veronica Austin, who both arrived at Grace House last week, did not get their IDs in time to vote. Maria Lopez said that between her group meetings, she didn\u2019t have time to vote.<\/p>\n

Of the women who did vote, most said they voted a straight Democratic ticket. Jacqueline Langston, Jackson and Williams are all African-American women in their earlier fifties. They all said that the Democratic Party has been the party for the working class.<\/p>\n

\"Jacqueline
Jacqueline Langston said Trump is out of touch with the working class. (June Leffler\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With a Republican president, the women are all worried about potential cuts to public assistance programs. Nobody could be sure what they would lose. They mentioned Medicaid, food stamps, education and transition programs like Grace House.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re cutting schools, then you can\u2019t [but] wonder why people get into negative things,\u201d said Jackson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need those who can help us better ourselves,\u201d said Williams. They want access to quality jobs like everyone else.<\/p>\n

Stolzke said while there are government incentives for hiring ex-offenders, employers still have their reservations.<\/p>\n

To Jackson, a rap sheet is an obstacle for getting a job, making rejection a normal part of her life. \u201cEverything has to go past somebody\u2019s desk,\u201d she said. \u201cGive us the benefit of the doubt to be self-sufficient.\u201d<\/p>\n

Langston said she was a working addict. She spent over thirty years working for the Chicago Housing Authority. While Grace House helps the women find jobs, Langston said she doesn\u2019t want to settle for jobs that the program suggests and that are expected of ex-felons. \u201cI don\u2019t want to work for McDonald\u2019s, or in an assembly line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones, who spent 60 days in jail, had worked in nursing homes as a caregiver, but now she can\u2019t because of her felony. She earns $8.25 an hour, working 12-hour shifts at a warehouse in Aurora.<\/p>\n

If she wants to work again in a nursing home, she can get her criminal record expunged in a year by following her probation conditions.<\/p>\n

As the television coverage projected state after state, Sabrina Williams got nervous.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to keep moving forward,\u201d Williams said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter who\u2019s in office. He\u2019ll put up some obstacles but we\u2019ll be alright.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Grace House on Chicago’s near west side provides housing substance abuse treatment for ex-offenders. (Photo credit: June Leffler\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By June Leffler A week before the presidential election, Lacey Stolzke was released from jail after serving 225 days. \u201cI was never into politics, because I was so caught up in my drug use.\u201d At 27 years old, she\u2019s in treatment and living at Grace House, a halfway house for female ex-offenders who are recovering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":46153,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[766,1145,30,675],"tags":[482,2833,3322,3321,2883,2306],"class_list":["post-46130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-election2016","category-election-2016","category-public-affairs","category-social-justice","tag-election","tag-ex-offender","tag-grace-house","tag-healing","tag-recidivism","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"\nA Trump presidency is sobering for ex-offenders - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/a-trump-presidency-is-sobering-for-ex-offenders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Trump presidency is sobering for ex-offenders - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By June Leffler A week before the presidential election, Lacey Stolzke was released from jail after serving 225 days. \u201cI was never into politics, because I was so caught up in my drug use.\u201d At 27 years old, she\u2019s in treatment and living at Grace House, a halfway house for female ex-offenders who are recovering […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/a-trump-presidency-is-sobering-for-ex-offenders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-10T02:46:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-08T20:29:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/11\/IMG_1406-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"719\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"juneleffler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"juneleffler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/a-trump-presidency-is-sobering-for-ex-offenders\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/a-trump-presidency-is-sobering-for-ex-offenders\/\",\"name\":\"A Trump presidency is sobering for ex-offenders - 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