Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

15 hours ago

Trump Says He’s Willing to Let Migrant Farm Laborers Stay in US

15 hours ago

US Electric Vehicle Tax Breaks Will Expire on Sept. 30

1 day ago

Eyeing Arctic Dominance, Trump Bill Earmarks $8.6 Billion for US Coast Guard Icebreakers

1 day ago

Trump’s Sweeping Tax-Cut and Spending Bill Wins Congressional Approval

1 day ago

Americans Celebrate Their Independence With Record-Breaking Travel Numbers

2 days ago

US Supreme Court to Decide Legality of Transgender School Sports Bans

2 days ago

Nvidia Set to Become the World’s Most Valuable Company in History

2 days ago

Poll: 41% in US ‘Extremely Proud’ to Be American, Near Historic Low

2 days ago
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

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Trump to Sign Tax-Cut and Spending Bill in July 4 Ceremony

DON'T MISS

Madre Fire Spurs Evacuations Across 3 Counties, Grows to More Than 70,000 Acres

DON'T MISS

Clovis, Sanger, Madera, and Bass Lake Will Light the Sky With Fireworks Shows Tonight

DON'T MISS

Oil Dips Ahead of Expected OPEC+ Output Increase

DON'T MISS

613 Killed at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites, Near Humanitarian Covoys, Says UN

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Authorities Investigating Suspicious Death of Transient Man

DON'T MISS

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

DON'T MISS

Israeli Military Kills 20 in Gaza as Trump Awaits Hamas Reply to Truce Proposal

DON'T MISS

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Rachelle Maria Blanco

DON'T MISS

Russia Pounds Kyiv With Largest Drone Attack, Hours After Trump-Putin Call

UP NEXT

Fresno Crash Involving Unlicensed Teen Driver Sends Woman to Hospital

UP NEXT

Madre Fire Burns More Than 52,000 Acres in San Luis Obispo County

UP NEXT

Americans Celebrate Their Independence With Record-Breaking Travel Numbers

UP NEXT

San Luis Obispo’s Madre Fire Grows to 35,000 Acres, More Evacuations Ordered

UP NEXT

Poll: 41% in US ‘Extremely Proud’ to Be American, Near Historic Low

UP NEXT

Poorest Americans Dealt Biggest Blow Under Senate Republican Tax Package

UP NEXT

CHP Officer Dies in Line of Duty After Medical Emergency While on Patrol

UP NEXT

Downtown Housing Could Rise in Many California Cities, but Barriers Remain

UP NEXT

Poll: Most Americans Say National Divide, Political Violence Threaten Democracy

UP NEXT

Trump Pulls Back 150 Guard Troops From Federal Duties in California

Oil Dips Ahead of Expected OPEC+ Output Increase

14 hours ago

613 Killed at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites, Near Humanitarian Covoys, Says UN

15 hours ago

Fresno County Authorities Investigating Suspicious Death of Transient Man

15 hours ago

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

15 hours ago

Israeli Military Kills 20 in Gaza as Trump Awaits Hamas Reply to Truce Proposal

15 hours ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Rachelle Maria Blanco

15 hours ago

Russia Pounds Kyiv With Largest Drone Attack, Hours After Trump-Putin Call

15 hours ago

Boxer Chavez Jr Expected to Be Deported to Mexico to Serve Sentence, Mexican President Says

15 hours ago

Markets’ 90-Day Tariff Pause Rollercoaster Nears an Uncertain End

15 hours ago

Trump Says He’s Willing to Let Migrant Farm Laborers Stay in US

15 hours ago

Trump to Sign Tax-Cut and Spending Bill in July 4 Ceremony

President Donald Trump is scheduled to sign a massive package of tax and spending cuts into law at a ceremony at the White House on Friday, ...

14 hours ago

President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 12, 2025. (Reuters File)
14 hours ago

Trump to Sign Tax-Cut and Spending Bill in July 4 Ceremony

The Madre Fire burning near New Cuyama has scorched 70,801 acres as of Friday, July 4, 2025, afternoon, making it California’s largest wildfire of the year, with only 10% containment and multiple evacuation zones in place. (CalFire)
14 hours ago

Madre Fire Spurs Evacuations Across 3 Counties, Grows to More Than 70,000 Acres

14 hours ago

Clovis, Sanger, Madera, and Bass Lake Will Light the Sky With Fireworks Shows Tonight

A pumpjack operates at the Vermilion Energy site in Trigueres, France, June 14, 2024. (Reuters File)
14 hours ago

Oil Dips Ahead of Expected OPEC+ Output Increase

Palestinians gather to collect what remains of relief supplies from the distribution center of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 5, 2025. (Reuters File)
15 hours ago

613 Killed at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites, Near Humanitarian Covoys, Says UN

Billy Wayne Sinisgalli, a 54-year-old transient known locally as Wayne, was found dead along a rural Fresno road Wednesday in what authorities are investigating as a suspicious death. (Fresno County SO)
15 hours ago

Fresno County Authorities Investigating Suspicious Death of Transient Man

Israel Builds a Fence Around the West Bank
15 hours ago

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

A view of the site of Thursday's Israeli strike that damaged and destroyed residential buildings, at Shati (Beach) refugee camp, in Gaza City, July 4, 2025. (Reuters/Mahmoud Issa)
15 hours ago

Israeli Military Kills 20 in Gaza as Trump Awaits Hamas Reply to Truce Proposal

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

Search

Send this to a friend