Josh Kraft Launches Reentry Initiative to Link Ex-Cons with City Hall Careers

Boston Mayoral Candidate Josh Kraft Unveils Reentry Plan for Formerly Incarcerated Individuals

Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft has introduced a comprehensive plan aimed at helping formerly incarcerated individuals reintegrate into society. His proposal includes restarting a city jobs program for young people with criminal records and increasing the hiring of ex-offenders at City Hall.

Kraft, the son of billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, emphasized his experience working with the formerly incarcerated population through the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston and his family’s philanthropic efforts. He believes this background makes him better equipped to support reentry than current Mayor Michelle Wu.

“Boston must do better to provide housing, job training, mental health resources, and other services to ensure those coming back to our community have the foundation they need to flourish,” Kraft stated. “Past mistakes should not define someone’s future. Doing this well not only benefits those who’ve served their time — it strengthens families and communities and helps all of Boston.”

Kraft announced his plan during a press conference held at the Iron Workers Local 7 Union hall in South Boston, where he was joined by about 10 residents who previously served prison time. While the union has endorsed his candidacy, it did not participate in the event.

Reestablishing Operation Exit

One of the key components of Kraft’s plan is reestablishing Operation Exit, a city program that began under the Marty Walsh administration. This initiative aimed to deter violence and provide system-involved youth with pathways to jobs after incarceration, particularly in fields such as trades, web development, and culinary arts.

Kraft mentioned that he helped fund the program during the Walsh administration, but it was ended by the Wu administration a few years ago. “That was a mistake,” he said.

In addition to reviving Operation Exit, Kraft outlined several other initiatives. These include creating 90-day reentry plans for every individual before their release from incarceration, forming a Boston reentry network with partnerships with Roxbury Community College and other local higher education institutions, and establishing a national reentry task force to coordinate best practices with other major city mayors.

Economic and Social Benefits

As a longtime philanthropist, Kraft emphasized that his plan would reestablish Boston as a national model for reentry programs, similar to what was achieved under the Walsh administration. He pointed to statistics showing that Boston, with 18,000 employees, is one of the largest employers in the city, yet an estimated one in 10 city jobs remain vacant.

If elected, Kraft plans to form a commission to examine which areas of city government could benefit from hiring formerly incarcerated individuals who have successfully turned their lives around. “For me, this is an issue about more than compassion for people who are reentering our city,” he said. “It’s also about doing what’s smart, doing everything we can to give this community the best chance of finding stable employment and careers. Becoming advocates for deterrence is also the best thing we can do for our neighborhoods, our families, and our kids.”

Mayor Wu’s Response

Mayor Wu responded to Kraft’s claims at an unrelated event, calling his attacks on her administration’s reentry work “nothing new.” She criticized his statements as “irresponsible Kraft macaroni bologna” and dismissed his version of events. Wu noted that the original Operation Exit program was ended prior to her administration and has since been replaced by two other city programs that have built upon its work.

One of these programs focuses on directly placing formerly incarcerated residents into city jobs, helping to fill vacancies, while the other serves as a training program connecting ex-cons to building trades jobs. Wu highlighted that her administration has “more than tripled” the budget for the Office of Returning Citizens and allocated over half a million dollars in grant funding to local organizations supporting reentry efforts in the past year alone.

“We believe in making sure that we’re delivering the results,” Wu said. “It doesn’t always have to be a city-branded and city-run program. We do the programs that we believe we can have the most impact in, but a lot of this is also ensuring that we’re getting the resources out to community organizations who already have relationships, have been doing this work for decades, and can really deliver a lot of benefit to our community members.”