Rehabilitation and Reentry Policy Reform
CROP’s operational and programmatic policies are derived from some of the guiding principles contained in California’s recent reform efforts including the Governor’s Rehabilitation Strike Team Report issued in December of 2007. One of the key references from the Strike Team Report found in the middle of Page 48 states:
“Future planning should…consider the role of faith-based, family focused, and community organizations in the implementation of AB 900. In fact, Michael Carrington, Director of CDCR’s Office of Policy, Analysis and Planning (OPAP) has developed a program policy proposal (which has been adopted by CDCR) to implement transformative programming concepts using public-private partnerships with faith-based and community-based organizations and providers.
The RST welcomes the incorporation of such programs into CDCR’s newfound rehabilitation focus.”Despite numerous different approaches over the past several years to improve rehabilitation and reduce recidivism, California’s recidivism rate had continued to stubbornly hover around 70 percent. California’s Expert Review Panel Report commented on the problem by stating:
“Clearly something is wrong. Either something is preventing the programs from achieving their intended effect or something is wrong with the programs themselves.”
CDCR’s reform efforts were designed to try to determine why various systems had been failing to make a significant difference in recidivism rates. The reform efforts found that one of the main contributing factors was an ongoing failure to address the core causes of what was driving the offender population and what was also maintaining recidivistic tendencies. Most offenders come from historical circumstances that include multi-generational family dysfunction, every kind of imaginable abuse, huge emotional voids, lack of familial support or nurture, substance abuse, hopelessness, and despair. These elements constitute what could be called a Negative Impact History (NIH) and these elements are the baggage that inmates carry with them every day of their lives. Failure to properly address inmates’ NIHs and the baggage they carry are the primary reasons for past systemic failure. CDCR’s reforms collectively identified these circumstances as a “crisis of the human spirit” and also recognized that government, per se, cannot effectively treat such a crisis. The reforms point out that the crisis can be addressed by partnerships with the faith-based community and transformative program providers that specialize in helping inmates remove the baggage from their past lives.
CROP’s operational and programmatic premises are based upon California’s reform efforts and are designed to specifically address the “crisis of the human spirit” and to remove the baggage from the past. These factors are incorporated into every phase of CROP’s planning processes.
In order to increase the chances of successful parole, CROP’s pilot program at CDCR’s CCC facility in Northern California is designed to front-load mandated post-release training classes while inmates are still in custody. Under current policies, when inmates are released on parole, they have a number of required tasks to perform that include visiting with their parole officer, taking various classes (which they have to pay for), trying to get and keep a job, and reuniting with family. The array of things that parolees currently have to contend with, usually with no money or significant support mechanisms, are not conducive to successful parole. CROP’s pilot program seeks to insure that mandated classes will have been completed before parole begins so that the parolee can simply concentrate on getting a job, reuniting with family, and finding a support group.
