Nicholas Pugliese

State House Bureau, @nickpugz

Mike Tyson, whose historic boxing career was paused in 1992 by a rape conviction and a three-year prison term, is getting impatient over a promise he says he got from President Donald Trump.

Nearing the end of a panel discussion on criminal justice reform with Gov. Chris Christie and former Gov. Jim McGreevey in Jersey City on Thursday, the former world heavyweight champion was asked whether he had anything else to say to Christie.

“Man, Governor, I wish you could talk to Donald Trump,” he said as hundreds of people in the audience laughed, unsure where he was about to go with his comments. “He said he was going to give me my pardon. So I'm waiting for my pardon. He said that out of his mouth, so I'm waiting.”

Tyson, who never specified Thursday what offense he was seeking a pardon for, endorsed Trump in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. And in the wake of Tyson’s rape conviction 25 years ago, Trump publicly called the verdict “a travesty” and said it was Tyson who was often the target of unsolicited advances by women. Tyson returned to jail in 1999 for an assault charge and pleaded guilty to drug possession in 2007.

“I’ll put that on my list for the next phone call, Mike,” Christie joked in response Thursday as the audience continue to laugh. Christie, a longtime friend of the Trump family, says he has regular conversations with the president.

The interaction got more extraordinary still when Tyson rose out of his seat a few minutes later to present Christie with what appeared to be a high-quality replica of one of his World Boxing Association title belts.

“Governor Christie, I would like to present to you the world heavyweight championship belt which you do deserve,” Tyson said, part of a ceremony crowning the governor as the "World-Class Reentry Champion of the World."

“You took the punches," Tyson said. "Trust me, you deserve it.”

A White House representative did not immediately respond to questions Thursday about whether Trump had promised to grant Tyson a pardon. Tyson's rape case was tried in an Indiana state court, and a president does not have the authority to grant clemency for a state conviction.

Expungement legislation on the horizon

The panel on which Tyson appeared Thursday was part of the annual Prisoner Reentry Conference, which is hosted by a non-profit corporation headed by McGreevey. For the last four years, it has served as a come-one-come-all retreat for people of different political and other backgrounds to talk about ways to prepare prisoners for release and help them transition back into society, with housing opportunities, substance abuse resources and access to jobs and training.

The topic of expungement, which was a focus of last year’s conference, resurfaced this year with a commitment by Christie to work with state Sen. Sandra Cunningham, D-Hudson, to introduce and pass new legislation by the end of June.

“We had a great, really productive meeting a couple weeks ago and again this week, and we’re trying to come to a point where we can make expungement make sense for the folks who need it and also be protective of the public,” Christie said of his talks with Cunningham.

“I’m confident that she and I can find a place where we can both agree to allow there to be greater opportunities once [prisoners] have paid their debt to society,” he added. “This should not be a lifetime stain.”

Expungement allows people who have had contact with the criminal justice system to clear their record of past offenses, arrests and related proceedings. Once those events are expunged, they are legally considered not to have happened.

Many former prisoners are turned away from jobs, housing and other services on account of past convictions. For them, expungement can be a critical tool for life advancement.

But New Jersey’s expungement laws are very strict as compared to such states as Indiana, Kansas and Arkansas, supporters of reform said Thursday.

“I don’t like the idea of living in a state where we’re behind them when it comes to expungement,” said Lawrence Lustberg, an attorney.

Expungement in New Jersey is limited to one indictable offense, for example, although many people are charged with more than one crime in connection to a single arrest. State law also requires former prisoners to wait 10 years — or five years in some cases — until they can apply to clear their records.

In addition, many offenses are simply not eligible for expungement.

“As a society, we have to be forgiving,” Lustberg said, adding at another point, “We can do better, and we have to.”

State funding for prisoner reentry at risk

Although Christie, a Republican, and McGreevey, a Democrat, exchanged praise Thursday for showing compassion toward addicts and former prisoners, Christie’s proposed budget for the 2018 fiscal year zeroes out funding for the very organization that hosted Thursday’s event and for its sister organization in South Jersey.

State funding for McGreevey’s organization, the New Jersey Reentry Corporation, totaled $2.5 million in fiscal year 2017 to help provide housing, employment, addiction, healthcare and legal services to former inmates in Passaic, Hudson, Essex and Ocean counties.

McGreevey says his clients have a much higher employment rate and lower rate of recidivism than the general population of recently released inmates, which saves the state money by reducing prison costs.

But despite the former governor’s request for an additional $5.5 million to expand his programs into Bergen, Union, Middlesex, Somerset and Monmouth in the coming fiscal year, his corporation is now facing the prospect of losing state funding altogether.

The Volunteers of America Delaware Valley, which performs similar services in Trenton and Atlantic City, also received $2.5 million in fiscal year 2017 and is hoping to double its funding to expand to into Camden, Gloucester and Cumberland counties.

It, too, saw its state funding axed in Christie’s proposed $35.5 billion spending plan for the 2018 fiscal year.

Daniel Lombardo, president and CEO of Volunteers of America Delaware Valley, said in a recent interview that his organization’s programs work hand-in-hand with Christie’s initiatives related to substance abuse and rehabilitation.

“We’re dealing with a population that if there is no intervention, it’s only a matter of time until they return to the lifestyle that got them in trouble in the first place,” he said.

Email: pugliese@northjersey.com