California’s recidivism rates remain among the highest in the country, but a majority of prisoners are not assigned to programs designed to address their criminality.
Prison officials tracked all offenders released during fiscal year 2006-07 for three years to determine if they returned to prison. Sixty-five percent were back in custody.
Part of the solution, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), is to require that prisoners be assigned to a job or participate in an educational program. However, under existing institutional regulations, prisoners cannot leave jobs to participate in a volunteer rehabilitation program.
In 2005, legislation was passed recognizing that volunteer rehabilitation programs are “an important component of an overall strategy” to “reduce inmate recidivism.”
The legislation encouraged CDCR to provide prisoners reasonable access to volunteer programs because it would reduce “violations of prison rules…prison costs, property loss and harm to victims”
However, CDCR has not changed its work rules to allow prisoners access to any volunteer programs that would gain the benefits of the 2005 legislation.
Currently, CDCR reports it offers substance abuse programming to roughly 8,600 of its 135,000 inmates and educational programs to around 37,000.
San Quentin is distinct among California’s 33 prisons, providing over 70 rehabilitation programs staffed by over 3,500 volunteers from community-based organizations. Mathew Cate, CDCR secretary, has been quoted as saying he would like to implement the San Quentin model in all of the state’s prisons.
A recent state report says if “rehabilitation programs are not available that the prisoners need to change their lives, and reentry plans not prepared, recidivism rates will continue to be the highest in the country.”
