JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Community faith leaders came together Monday night to propose solutions to crime and violence.
At their Nehemiah Action Assembly, ICARE clergy and leaders discussed ideas to bring relief.
"While the city struggles with violence, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spends millions of dollars on arresting thousands of people for low-priority offenses," said event organizers in a press release.
"The top misdemeanor in Duval County is driving with a suspended or revoked license. In 2019, over 14,500 arrest charges were for paperwork problems like expired or suspended license, insurance violations, and problems with a tag. These are not dangerous or violent acts."
ICARE wants Jacksonville Sheriff, T.K. Waters, to partner with State Attorney Melissa Nelson to start an adult civil citation program. It thinks the program can help adults who have committed a crime get their lives back on track.
ICARE thinks the youth civil citation program can serve as a blueprint.
"We give them assignments of what they need to do. You know it can go anywhere from some counseling they need to do to some research they need to do to tasks they need to do," ICARE member, Nancy Ricker, said.
The youth program includes four neighborhood accountability boards, Ricker served on three of them.
The kid then has to take part in a 90-day program.
“Many of our kids have gone on to military, many of them have gone on to college because they were not branded with an arrest record because of the civil citations for youth," ICARE Treasurer, Geneva Pittman, said.
Years ago, ICARE says it worked with State Attorney Melissa Nelson and former Sheriff Mike Williams to start the youth civil citation program. ICARE says the program saves Jacksonville millions of dollars each year and keeps kids from being caught in the system.
Sheriff Waters supports the youth program but opposes an adult program.
“I don’t believe in decriminalization I believe we should hold a standard for adults," Waters said.
When it comes to misdemeanors, Waters agrees kids will be kids.
But adults should know better.
“The things we’re talking about are not life ending life shattering they don’t break a person’s will or ability to move about,” Waters said.
The adult civil citation program was passed at the state level in 2018.
