New York City Mayor Eric Adams has announced a significant expansion of the Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) training program for justice-involved individuals, set to grow 15-fold in 2026, training 300 New Yorkers. Partnering with Emerge Career, the program has already proven successful, with every 2025 graduate securing high-paying CDL jobs with salaries between $78,000 and $124,800. This initiative tackles the 60% unemployment rate faced by formerly incarcerated individuals while addressing the trucking industry’s driver shortage. By offering tuition-free training, personalized coaching, and job placement, the program fosters financial stability, reduces recidivism, and drives economic mobility, positioning New York City as a leader in innovative reentry workforce solutions.
Mayor Adams Announces Major Expansion of Big-Rig Training Program for Justice-Involved New Yorkers
What you should know
- Innovative Partnership Between MOCJ and Emerge Careers Produced Job Offers in High-Demand Trucking Industry for Every Graduate of Inaugural 2025 Program
- Starting Salaries Range From $78,000 to $124,000 for Population That Typically Faces 60 Percent Unemployment Post-Incarceration
- Newly Announced Expansion Will Increase Participation 15-Fold from Inaugural Class, Putting 300 More New Yorkers on Pathways to New Careers and Financial Stability
NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ) Director Deanna Logan today announced a massive expansion of its successful Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) training program for justice-involved individuals. The multi-million-dollar investment with reentry workforce development partner Emerge Career will ensure hundreds of New Yorkers will benefit from the life-changing training, personalized coaching, and job placement offered through the program next year — a dramatic increase from 2025’s initial pilot program.
The innovative program addresses two critical needs: financial stability for individuals with a history of criminal justice involvement and filling workforce gaps in an industry facing significant labor shortages. The average unemployment rate for Americans getting out of incarceration is 60 percent — 12 times the overall national average. However, every single graduate of the 2025 program secured a full-time CDL job offer, with starting salaries ranging from $78,000.00 to $124,800, demonstrating both the program’s life-changing impact and its cost-effectiveness for the city’s workforce pipeline.
“One mistake should not destroy a person’s life because a bend in the road should not be the end of a road,” said Mayor Adams. “Today, we are driving second chances in New York City by expanding our Commercial Driver’s License training program. This innovative program provides formerly justice-involved New Yorkers with the skills they need to earn a CDL and connects them with meaningful employment opportunities in an industry facing significant labor shortages. By providing upstream solutions to downstream problems, we are shifting up a gear to prevent recidivism, keep our city safe, and put justice-involved New Yorkers on a path to build their American Dream in the greatest city in the world.”
“Research has taught us that one of the easiest ways to improve community safety is to help New Yorkers find financial stability,” said MOCJ Director Logan. “The data is also showing us that our investments in Emerge Career are paying immense dividends, in real second chances and wealth creation for some of our city’s most disadvantaged communities.”
“This partnership with the City of New York shows what’s possible when government embraces bold, human-centered technology to truly uplift its people,” said Zo Orchingwa, co-founder and co-CEO, Emerge Career. “We’re deeply grateful for the city’s trust in our vision and its commitment to those too often left behind. While this expansion marks a significant milestone, it’s only the start — our goal is to create lasting high-wage careers for every disadvantaged New Yorker and to transform reentry workforce development — establishing New York City as a leader in innovative, data-backed reentry workforce solutions.”
“What sets Emerge apart is our deep collaboration with the broader community,” said Gabriel Saruhashi, co-founder and co-CEO, Emerge Career. “Our all-in-one workforce development platform gives case workers, emergency shelters, transitional housing programs, and supervision agencies real-time visibility into participants’ journeys — which is how our participants succeed at rates 50 percent higher than national averages and earn nearly twice as much as the typical graduate. This expansion will bring in $24 million in new wealth for their communities and the city.”
According to the American Trucking Association, the U.S. is facing a shortage of more than 60,000 drivers. CDL training provides a fast, accessible path to high-wage, stable employment in a critical industry that urgently needs talent — making it especially well-suited for ideal justice-impacted individuals who are often excluded from licensed professions.
After providing tuition-free training to 20 participants in 2025, MOCJ will expand the program to 300 participants in 2026, with additional expansions planned in the future. The announcement builds on the Adams administration’s broader commitment to investing in upstream solutions to public safety and economic mobility.
MOCJ — and its Community Innovations team — relies on data to guide its outreach efforts. Research consistently shows that poverty and limited access to vocational training and education are major contributors to incarceration and recidivism. According to a 2018 Brookings study, more than 80 percent of incarcerated men were jobless and had no income in the year prior to their incarceration. After release, only 20 percent reported earning at least $15,000 in their first year back in the community. By contrast, newly employed graduates of the city’s CDL program have secured positions with starting salaries ranging from $78,000 to $124,800.
Today’s announcement continues to build off Mayor Adams’ different investments in diversion programs and upstream solutions, including through recent investments in the city’s Fiscal Year 2026 Adopted Budget, which continues Mayor Adams’ ‘Best Budget Ever.’ Investments include:
- Funding to invest in alternatives to incarceration services, including case management, substance abuse programming, group counseling, housing placement assistance, health care, and other services for adults charged with a crime ($7.6 million).
- Covering the indirect rate for non-profits that provide re-entry services, indigent defense, supervised release, and other criminal justice programming that was previously funded with stimulus dollars ($6.5 million).
- Helping to stabilize recently decarcerated individuals with re-entry services, including job readiness training; mental, physical, and behavioral health care; counseling; housing assistance; and mentoring ($4.7 million).
- Supporting “Project Restore,” a community-based gang violence intervention program that addresses barriers to personal growth, including economic insecurity, disconnection from education and employment, a lack of role models, and unhealed trauma ($2 million).
- Funding to create the South Bronx Community Justice Center, which will provide programming for gun violence prevention initiatives, crisis intervention, and high school equivalency education ($2 million).
“Having a job is the pillar of living a productive life – and an essential component of rehabilitation and re-entry into society after a prison term,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. “The expansion of this training program will afford this foundational opportunity to many more people returning from incarceration. This is exactly the type of intervention that helps reduce crime by offering people a better path, so I commend Mayor Adams and the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice for this promising initiative.”
“Providing justice-involved individuals stable, good-paying jobs can help them get back on their feet and on the pathway to success, and I thank the mayor and his administration for their commitment to expanding this important initiative,” said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Jr. “This program can be life changing for New Yorkers who are re-entering into their communities.”
“Securing a job is key to avoiding recidivism,” said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz. “The city’s commercial driver’s license training program has proven to be a success in providing employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals. I thank Mayor Adams for expanding this valuable program that will provide gainful employment opportunities for those reentering the workforce.”
August 27, 2025 Manhattan, New York
Sources: NYC.gov . Big New York News BigNY.com
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