California’s prison system is working to increase vocational, educational and rehabilitative services to inmates, but it is a long-range and difficult job, two top officials say.
“We have big cultural changes to make as a community. People need to realize that today’s inmate is tomorrow’s neighbor, and it benefits society as a whole when we provide opportunities to offenders,” said Millicent Tidwell, director of the Division of Rehabilitative Programs.
“If all we do is lock inmates up every day and don’t let them out to do anything, they will have the same thoughts over and over again. You’ve got to get them to do something different if we want to expect them to act differently when they leave,” said Rodger Meier, deputy director of the division. “The cuff ‘em and feed ‘em mentality has to change.”
In November 2013, Tidwell was appointed director of DRP to complete the implementation of the Blueprint, a plan adopted in 2012 by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. It aims to cut billions in spending, improve prison and parole operations and to meet court-ordered constitutional standards for medical, mental health and dental care needs of inmates.
They reported the division has developed partnerships with the Division of Adult Institutions (DAI) and the Division of Adult Parole Operations (DAPO) to create more programs for inmates and parolees.
“Building these partnerships is making these programs more successful. Due to increased partnerships between DRP and DAPO, our parolee programs went from a 40 percent enrollment to a 93 percent enrollment,” said Meier.
Not everything goes smoothly, Meier noted, saying, “CDCR as a department has changed its focus to rehabilitation, lawmakers have changed their focus to rehabilitation, but when you get down to the actual folks on the line you have many pockets of excellence and you have places that are still resistant.
“It is hard to change something that has been ingrained for decades, if not centuries, to get them to look at this differently.
“Some inmates are resistant, but once they are in the program, they realize how much they actually needed it. One female inmate felt she didn’t need to be in the substance abuse treatment program. She was kicking and screaming. She had a long history of drug abuse but she didn’t feel like she was addicted. After being in the program for about two weeks she said, ‘This is the best thing for me.’ Many of the other inmates have been waiting for these programs to come and are just happy they are here now because they really wanted to make a change.”
Tidwell and Meier discussed CDCR’s recent shift from being “tough on crime” to being “smart on crime” in an interview with Dana Simas, CDCR public information officer.
Tidwell credits building up CDCR’s Office of Correctional Education as her biggest accomplishment so far.
“We were able to bring in a new superintendent and a deputy superintendent to really build up our correctional education component. It’s something that has been lacking focus for a very long time, so I am really proud of the work they are doing to pull our schools together.”
Tidwell noted, “I’ve received several emails from officers in the field who have said ‘Thank you’ for these programs because the yard is quieter, more peaceful and a better place to work without the stress levels they’ve had in the past.”
