Jacksonville Sheriff onboard with revamped Jacksonville Journey, but not criminal justice reform

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Jacksonville Sheriff TK Waters told Action News Jax Thursday he’s all on board with the effort to revitalize the Jacksonville Journey crime prevention effort, so long as it doesn’t include one element: Criminal justice reform.

The effort to revive the Jacksonville Journey aims to reduce crime through literacy, prevention, and reentry programs.

But Waters wants to make sure it doesn’t impact his office’s ability to police crime.

“I’m on board for everything when it comes to the Journey except one thing. And criminal justice reform is not needed in Jacksonville. We need reform of criminals, but not criminal justice reform,” said Waters. “It’s time to stop turning what bad people do on the people that are here to try to protect our community and our citizens.”

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W.C .Gentry is leading the subcommittee tasked with making recommendations to Mayor-elect Donna Deegan in the effort to restore the Jacksonville Journey.

He argued the Journey won’t impact policing, but he is hoping JSO collaborates and helps inform the committee’s work related to crime prevention.

“The Journey never dabbled in policing or that sort of thing. It was all about trying to identify where the City of Jacksonville can engage, to intervene with young juveniles to keep them out of jail, keep them out of trouble. Now I guess that’s criminal justice because we’re trying to keep kids out of jail, out of trouble, and preventing kids from falling into crime,” said Gentry.

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One person we haven’t heard from is Lakesha Burton, who will serve as Mayor-elect Donna Deegan’s Chief of Public Safety.

Deegan has stated Burton will oversee the resurrection of the Jacksonville Journey.

Burton was unavailable for comment Thursday, but Action News Jax will continue to press for clarity on the scope of her role and how she envisions the revamped crime prevention initiative.

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