Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Community Programs for California Inmates Bring More Escapes
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 6 years ago on
April 26, 2019

Share

SACRAMENTO — California’s attempt to ease inmates back into the community is coming at a price: more prisoners, some with violent convictions, walking away before their time is up.
Fifty of the state’s more than 126,000 prisoners absconded last year, almost half of them from a program that allows male inmates to serve the final year of their sentences in community centers to get help with substance abuse, mental and other health issues, jobs, education, housing, family reunification and social support.

“Oh my gosh, that’s a lot. When you’re talking about second-degree robbery or felons who are desperate, what do desperate people do?” — Crime Victims Action Alliance executive director Christine Ward said of the overall number
While most were quickly recaptured, that’s nearly double the number from 2014, the year before the “re-entry” initiative started.
Also, while the program excludes known gang members, sex offenders and those deemed at high risk of committing violence, others with violent histories are allowed.
An Associated Press review of the Corrections Department-run program, which has about 600 inmates, found some of last year’s 24 walkaways were serving time for weapons offenses, including an armed attempted carjacking and injuring a spouse. Convictions for others included robberies, false imprisonment with violence and extortion using force or threat.
The upswing in walkaways has victims’ advocates concerned and corrections officials trying to identify factors that may be prompting inmates to leave mere months before they are set to be paroled.
“Oh my gosh, that’s a lot,” Crime Victims Action Alliance executive director Christine Ward said of the overall number. “When you’re talking about second-degree robbery or felons who are desperate, what do desperate people do?”

Improvements Intended to Better Help Inmates Reintegrate Into Society

California has nearly 40 supervisors and agents who search for walkaways and escapees along with their other duties that include managing prison gangs and conducting major criminal investigations. Corrections Department spokeswoman Terri Hardy said the state spends nearly $22 million annually on that Special Service Unit and several other units that together fall under the Office of Correctional Safety, but officials couldn’t break out the budget for catching fugitives.
The Corrections Department “takes the issue of walkaways very seriously,” said agency spokeswoman Vicky Waters, and reviewed the men’s re-entry program “to identify factors that may be leading participants to walk away from the program without authorization.”
That led to improvements intended to better help inmates reintegrate into society, she said. She wouldn’t give specifics, but said they include more focus on participants’ needs and the programs provided at re-entry centers.
So-called alternative custody programs serve a dual purpose, offering rehabilitation to inmates while helping state officials follow federal court orders to reduce overcrowding in prisons. Federal judges decided a decade ago that California’s prisons had become so crowded that it was preventing officials from providing inmates proper medical and mental health care.
Butte, Kern and San Diego counties each have a men’s re-entry center, while Los Angeles County has three.
Some centers have fences intended to make sure inmates and visitors properly check in and out, but they aren’t the sort of impenetrable barrier used at secure prisons, Waters said.

The Programs Can Help Reduce Crime in the Long Run

They have security staff, but inmates sometimes cut off their GPS-linked location monitors and disappear from the facilities or while on approved outside activities.

“There’s going to be a certain percentage of folks that won’t graduate the program or may walk away. [Yet the centers can] really reduce recidivism and give these people who are trying to re-enter our communities the support they need.” — Laura Dixon, spokeswoman for the Chief Probation Officers of California
Just two female inmates in three years have ever walked away from their version of the program, which has centers in Bakersfield, Sacramento, San Diego, Santa Fe Springs and Stockton. Only one male inmate escaped from within a secure perimeter at a prison last year; he was captured the next day.
Ward and Crime Victims United of California founder Harriet Salarno fear corrections officials are being too lenient in who they let into the men’s re-entry program.
“They are letting the people out that shouldn’t be out,” Salarno said.
The programs can help reduce crime in the long run by preparing inmates for a productive role in the community, said Laura Dixon, spokeswoman for the Chief Probation Officers of California, though she agreed with the victims’ advocates that proper screening is vital.
She cited the Butte County facility that is jointly run with county probation officers, unlike some of the other men’s re-entry programs. Just 3% of graduates have committed new crimes, she said, while two inmates walked away due to mental health or family issues.
“There’s going to be a certain percentage of folks that won’t graduate the program or may walk away,” Dixon said. Yet the centers can “really reduce recidivism and give these people who are trying to re-enter our communities the support they need.”

DON'T MISS

Merced Police Chief: Local Sexual Assault Exams ‘Worth’ Higher Cost

DON'T MISS

Anjelah Johnson-Reyes to Headline Chukchansi’s Summer Series with ‘Family Reunion Tour’

DON'T MISS

Sue or Hold Back? The University of California Does Both as It Faces Trump’s Wrath

DON'T MISS

Central Unified Takes Additional Steps To Protect Undocumented Students

DON'T MISS

Americans Trade Michelin Stars for Mac and Cheese

DON'T MISS

Dueling Protests Clash at Fresno Tesla Dealership

DON'T MISS

Hamas Says It Accepts New Gaza Ceasefire Proposal but Israel Makes Counter-Offer

DON'T MISS

Andrew Tate’s Ex-Girlfriend Accuses Him of Sexual Assault and Battery in New Lawsuit

DON'T MISS

Protesters Rebelling Against Elon Musk’s Purge of US Government Swarm Tesla Showrooms

DON'T MISS

Plastics Are Seeping Into Farm Fields, Food and Eventually Human Bodies

UP NEXT

Top Vaccine Official Resigns From FDA, Criticizes RFK Jr. for Promoting Misinformation, Lies

UP NEXT

California Food Banks Brace for Funding Cuts, and Not Only From the Trump Administration

UP NEXT

Cal State Automatically Admitting High School Students With Good Grades

UP NEXT

California Democratic Lawmaker Exaggerated His Record as a Police Officer

UP NEXT

Utah Becomes the First State to Ban Fluoride in Public Drinking Water

UP NEXT

Wilmer Flores’ 3-Run Homer in the 9th Inning Propels Giants to Victory Over Reds

UP NEXT

Trump Challenges California on Transgender Parental Notification

UP NEXT

Fresno Mayor Praises a State Bill That Would Speed In-Fill Housing

UP NEXT

Feds Revive Funding for the Tiny Delta Smelt Trump Hates

UP NEXT

Will This Bill Be the End of California’s Housing vs. Environment Wars?

Central Unified Takes Additional Steps To Protect Undocumented Students

21 hours ago

Americans Trade Michelin Stars for Mac and Cheese

22 hours ago

Dueling Protests Clash at Fresno Tesla Dealership

1 day ago

Hamas Says It Accepts New Gaza Ceasefire Proposal but Israel Makes Counter-Offer

2 days ago

Andrew Tate’s Ex-Girlfriend Accuses Him of Sexual Assault and Battery in New Lawsuit

2 days ago

Protesters Rebelling Against Elon Musk’s Purge of US Government Swarm Tesla Showrooms

2 days ago

Plastics Are Seeping Into Farm Fields, Food and Eventually Human Bodies

2 days ago

Myanmar’s Earthquake Death Toll Jumps to 1,644 as More Bodies Are Recovered From the Rubble

2 days ago

Top Vaccine Official Resigns From FDA, Criticizes RFK Jr. for Promoting Misinformation, Lies

2 days ago

If You Want to Ski Affordably Next Season, Buy Now

2 days ago

Merced Police Chief: Local Sexual Assault Exams ‘Worth’ Higher Cost

Last year, The Merced FOCUS reported that for the first time in over a decade, a crucial service for survivors of sexual assault would be of...

20 hours ago

20 hours ago

Merced Police Chief: Local Sexual Assault Exams ‘Worth’ Higher Cost

20 hours ago

Anjelah Johnson-Reyes to Headline Chukchansi’s Summer Series with ‘Family Reunion Tour’

21 hours ago

Sue or Hold Back? The University of California Does Both as It Faces Trump’s Wrath

21 hours ago

Central Unified Takes Additional Steps To Protect Undocumented Students

22 hours ago

Americans Trade Michelin Stars for Mac and Cheese

1 day ago

Dueling Protests Clash at Fresno Tesla Dealership

2 days ago

Hamas Says It Accepts New Gaza Ceasefire Proposal but Israel Makes Counter-Offer

2 days ago

Andrew Tate’s Ex-Girlfriend Accuses Him of Sexual Assault and Battery in New Lawsuit

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend