Readers write

Reentry requires more than a second chance

The AJC’s recent coverage of Georgia Works (“Former Turner manager is now leading Georgia Works through transformation,” July 6) highlights an important truth: successful reentry requires more than simply telling people leaving incarceration to find a job and move forward.

As a workforce development case manager and master of social work (MSW) graduate student, I regularly see how employment can change a person’s direction. I also see how difficult it is to maintain that progress when someone lacks stable housing, transportation, identification, healthcare, or an employer willing to look beyond a criminal record.

People returning from incarceration have completed the sentence imposed on them, yet many continue to face barriers that make stability difficult to achieve. When legitimate employment and housing remain out of reach, reentry becomes less about rehabilitation and more about surviving obstacles.

Georgia Works demonstrates the value of addressing several needs at once. Employers, workforce agencies, nonprofits, educational programs and community organizations can strengthen reentry by coordinating job training, transportation assistance, document recovery, housing referrals, mentoring and fair-chance hiring practices.

Reentry should not be measured only by whether someone leaves prison. It should also be measured by whether that person has a realistic path to stability, employment, community connection, and a lower likelihood of returning to the justice system.

Second chances work best when communities provide the tools necessary to make them sustainable.

HANNA FRANK, JEFFERSON

Trump will do whatever he can to hold onto power

In the AJC news story “How far will Trump go to influence the midterms?,” Sept. 7, the answer clearly is as far as he can get away with.

Whenever there is the slightest risk of losing his hold on power, President Donald Trump always lays the groundwork: sows doubt in elections, threatens election rules with executive orders, tries to rig the playing field with gerrymandering and the SAVE America Act, tests the limits of what he can get away with (restricting mail-in voting), lies about Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security involvement, and many more.

Using these trumped-up doubts, he is poised to make any number of court challenges, declare a national emergency, and other illegal acts to steal the election. He has already cheated with his fake electors, Jan. 6 riots, etc. If his shenanigans don’t work, the Speaker of the House has let slip more potential games: refusing illegally to seat newly elected members of Congress or declaring election irregularities that require investigation (potentially delaying the seating of duly elected representatives for months).

Thwarting Trump’s election interference and expressing your voting rights on Trump’s failed presidency should bring you to the polls this November.

JOHN W. SHACKLETON JR., ATLANTA

Don’t give AI governance to Congress

Let’s be honest, Congress does not have the best track record of solving anything. They have spent us into deep debt, spending trillions creating laws to eliminate poverty, crime and the war on drugs. All of which failed.

After such stunning failures, some of the more brilliant members in Congress now want to defund the police and ICE, and close prisons “to remake America Better.” Now they believe that they must come up with rules to govern artificial intelligence so we will be safer. Since most of these career politicians have never run so much as a lemonade stand, or have any experience in tech or computer science, I’m not only skeptical but scared.

We can’t let China beat us in AI, so let’s have ethical experts, not politicians, guide the development of our AI platforms. To paraphrase an old saying, a camel is what you get when politicians design a horse.