In 1974, the state of California began providing funds for newly released prisoners in the amount of $200. Thirty-five years later, in spite of inflation, an explosive rise in housing costs, and a state cost of living which is one of the highest in the nation, that $200 figure is as fixed as the granite walls of San Quentin State Prison.
According to the cost of living index, better known as the consumer price index (the most common measure of inflation), the price for goods totaling $200 in 1975 would have inflated to about $570 for those same goods in 2007.
It is not difficult to understand why newly released inmates step into financial dire straits on day one of their parole. The inflationary squeeze, coupled with the scantiness in housing and employment, brings the realization that the value of the 1974 $200, in 2009 times, is greatly diminished in its original conceptual purpose, listed in section 2713 of the California Penal Code, which was implemented to assist the reintegration of the newly released prisoner into society.
In 2003 while 160,000 men were incarcerated in California prisons, a mere 7,500 of those released had opportunity to take advantage of drug treatment programs. Recently, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, along with the state, have intensified their concept of drug treatment through pre-release, with links to residential treatment and housing assistance, which is encouraging.
Expanding this concept, with an emphasis on employment, would assist many more prisoners by providing treatment, housing and the jobs they desperately need for a successful parole.
The 1974 California Legislature’s noble aim to aid the reintegration of prisoners into society, by providing $200, fell short of its goal then and continues to fail to offer realistic financial support to prisoners being paroled now.
Most parolees want to be drug free with a stable home and steady employment Providing a cohesive financial plan to men released from prison would be one step towards ending California’s dismal 71 percent recidivism rate, and a concept that, if implemented, will help the reintegration into society of formerly incarcerated citizens.
