{"id":453810,"date":"2010-03-21T14:31:08","date_gmt":"2010-03-21T18:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/2010\/03\/21\/2620581\/another-view-inmate-rehab-programs.html#mi_rss=Opinion"},"modified":"2010-03-21T14:31:08","modified_gmt":"2010-03-21T18:31:08","slug":"another-view-inmate-rehab-programs-sharpen-focus-in-hard-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/453810","title":{"rendered":"Another View: Inmate rehab programs sharpen focus in hard times"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“Prisons Cut the Rehab Training” (March 8, Page A1) points out the importance of rehabilitating inmates, but missed a key point: Old ways of doing business have not been effective enough in reducing recidivism.<\/p>\n

In my previous position as inspector general overseeing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, I found that its substance abuse programs were “a $1 billion failure.” We have done a great deal since then to improve outcomes.<\/p>\n

Yet, some seem to want to stay stuck in the past with no attention to whether programs worked.<\/p>\n

Due to the state budget crisis, spending on CDCR’s offender rehabilitation programs has been reduced by more than a third, but we are now focusing on cost-effective programs that reduce recidivism and have eliminated programming that did not prove successful.<\/p>\n

As recommended by an expert panel, we are using evidence-based assessments to target services to offenders at the highest risk of returning to prison.<\/p>\n

We are shortening our in-prison substance abuse programs to three months from the past six to 36 months to reach more inmates and emphasizing community aftercare treatment – a combination that has been shown to reduce recidivism. We will still be able to provide substance abuse services to 8,450 inmates annually – not 2,400 as stated in the article.<\/p>\n

We are strongly emphasizing GED attainment, which can reduce recidivism up to 7 percent, according to the Washington State Institute for Public Policy. More students – not fewer – will be enrolled in GED classes by utilizing teachers’ aides and combining classroom instruction with independent study. We are emphasizing vocational programs that can be completed in 12 months – which can reduce recidivism up to 9 percent.<\/p>\n

For the first time, California is insisting that an inmate satisfactorily pass program requirements to earn time-off credits. New legislation authorizes as much as six additional weeks of credit for completing re- habilitation programs.<\/p>\n

CDCR is training long-term inmates as certified drug- and alcohol-abuse counselors to help their fellow inmates recover and attain a marketable skill upon release, training inmates as literacy tutors and doubling funding for prisons to sponsor community volunteer activities such as Alcoholics Anonymous and other self-help programs.<\/p>\n

Instead of staying mired in the failed policies of the past, our decision to focus on high-risk offenders, maximize use of existing resources and focus on programs proven to reduce recidivism is the right thing to do under challenging circumstances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Prisons Cut the Rehab Training” (March 8, Page A1) points out the importance of rehabilitating inmates, but missed a key point: Old ways of doing business have not been effective enough in reducing recidivism. In my previous position as inspector general overseeing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, I found that its substance abuse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4325,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-453810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453810\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}