The recidivism rate in California’s jails and prisons is
staggering.
The recidivism rate in California’s jails and prisons is staggering.
At 70 percent, it’s the worst in the country. And here in San Benito County, jailers often see the same faces come through year after year.
The consensus is that the state’s recidivism rate is compounded by a lack of rehabilitation programs.
“In the state of California there’s virtually no effort made while those inmates are in custody to get them to turn around while they’re in custody to come out and have a crime-free lifestyle,” said San Benito County Sheriff Curtis Hill, who noted how most prisons don’t have the room for rehabilitation programs because those spaces are being used to house inmates. “They’re just warehoused.”
In some state prisons, inmate bunks are stacked by the thousands in warehouse-style facilities. There are 172,000 inmates in California, but only 155,000 beds. Due to lacking jail space, 235,000 people avoided incarceration or were released early in 2005, according to the state’s Corrections Standards Authority.
To keep the federal government from assuming control of the state system, releasing 40,000 inmates and placing a cap on how many convicts can be incarcerated, state lawmakers passed a law that allocates a monstrous $7.2 billion in funds to add prison and jail beds and begin rehabilitation programs.
In 2004, Hill and the San Benito County Board of Supervisors started assessing the future needs of the county’s jail. Studies found the county would need an additional 96 beds in the next two decades to house its fluctuating jail population.
With the passage of the law, AB 900, it’s possible to have 75 percent of the jail expansion funded with state dollars. And that percentage could increase if San Benito County agrees with the state on a re-entry program that would house prisoners about to be released back into the county.
The re-entry program, for which $1.2 billion has been earmarked statewide, would provide mental health services, substance abuse counseling and job training for inmates while they are in custody.
Hill said about 20 percent of inmates in the San Benito County Jail have “severe mental health issues.”
“If it’s 20 percent at the local level, it’s a big number in the state prison system, and they’re getting no mental health counseling,” Hill said.
In April, the county hired Astevia Lopez-Bushnell to head its rehabilitation program in the jail, but not as part of AB 900.
“We’re starting to roll some things out,” Hill said. “We’ve got lots and lots of program space in there.”
A re-entry program would potentially partner the county’s behavioral health department, substance abuse program and job-training services with the jail.
Kathy Flores, who heads the county’s health and human services agency and job training program, said state funds would provide more services.
“With the existing resources, we would not be able to expand services,” Flores said.
The re-entry program would take many forms depending on the county, and San Benito County hasn’t agreed to anything.
Some counties will build a separate facility staffed with state correctional officers. Some counties will form a regional partnership – which four have already done – to save costs.
But Hill said there is only one way such an re-entry program would exist within the county’s borders.
“I’m not going to agree to have state prison employees on county property running a state facility to do re-entry,” Hill said.
The sheriff said that a re-entry program would have to be developed as part of the county’s jail expansion and be staffed with county employees. He believes the county could do a better job than the state at rehabilitating inmates.
“Most of these guys, we know them,” Hill said. “The state doesn’t know them – we know them. Every cop in town grew up with them. We know them when we see them walking down the street. Our local probation department knows who they are.”
If the state won’t agree to allowing the county to staff and run the re-entry program, Hill said it would be a “deal killer.”
“I’m not going to promote the building of a state prison in San Benito County,” Hill said. “That’s what they would be doing.”
County Administrative Officer Susan Thompson said more jail beds are needed here. If the jail expansion and re-entry program could be meshed, she said it would be “the best of both worlds.”
There will be much public discussion about the possibility of a re-entry program in San Benito County, she said.
A regional partnership with surrounding counties may be another option, Thompson said.
“It might be another scenario we want to explore,” she said.
Not everyone believes the $7.2 billion is a step in the right direction.
Ryan Sherman, director of public affairs for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, called AB 900 “one of the stupidest pieces of legislation that has been passed in years.”
Sherman said the bill will make an already large, disorganized agency – the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation – even more so. He argued that it does not fund the addition of more correctional officers and that certain facilities are having difficulties filling positions already funded.
“This bill is not about rehabilitation,” Sherman said. “All this bill does is build beds.”
But Hill said it is about more than just building beds.
“This is about doing the right thing for these inmates,” Hill said.
