Rehabilitation

RECENT POSTS

February 3, 2012 | 7:49 AM | By

The case for rehabilitation

Johannes Jensen

By Joaquin Palomino

Yesterday, we heard how politics have shaped California’s prison system, and about the push and pull between rehabilitation and punishment. “At the end of the day, corrections was about the bumping of heads of those people that think prison should be for punishment and those people that think that prison should be for rehabilitation,” says JB Wells, who spent almost three decades stuck between the two ideologies.

We know that in that tug of war, rehabilitation has been losing. In the last fiscal year, California spent $9.6 billion on its prison system. Just 4.6% of that went towards rehabilitation programs. In this final part of our series on sentencing in California, KALW’s Joaquin Palomino looks at changes that could reform California’s prison culture.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Corrections, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Lifers, Prison, Rehabilitation, sentencing
September 12, 2011 | 11:52 AM | By

Why crime will rise and what to do about it

Google Public Data Explorer

The unemployment rate won't help.

By Richard Gilliam

It was recently reported that the national unemployment rate remained bogged down at 9.1 percent. But the national unemployment rate for African-American males is much higher: 18 percent. And the actual unemployment rate for African-American teens is a staggering 47.5 percent. The unemployment rate for formerly incarcerated individuals, especially minority males, eclipses even these numbers.

Here in California, with the specter of early releases of hundreds of state prisoners due to prison overcrowding, is it any wonder why some officials are predicting a rise in crime if this occurs? These same elected officials–who seem to never miss an opportunity to cry “public safety” whenever their tough-on-crime, lengthy sentencing policies are questioned–are still singing the same tune without offering any answers. You, the taxpayers, are about to inherit the “after” that comes of short-sighted thinking.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Corrections, Prison Overcrowding, Realignment, Rehabilitation, Richard Gilliam
May 4, 2011 | 9:58 AM | By

What does rehabilitation look like?

“What’s the leading thing we can do to stop crime?” is the question administrators at Illinois’ Sheridan Correctional Center asked themselves when they were given license to reopen a closed prison with a new mission. Administrators decided that two things could keep inmates from returning to prison: getting them off drugs, and giving them access to education. This PBS piece followed inmates for three years as they spent time in Sheridan, which is the largest prison dedicated fully to those serving time on drug-related crimes. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Corrections, California Institution for Men, Prisons, Rehabilitation, Sheridan Correctional Center
January 27, 2011 | 10:37 AM | By

Prison protest underway at CMC

CDCR

Via the San Louis Obispo Tribune, about 1,000 inmates are currently staging a protest at the California Men’s Colony. According to CMC Spokesman Lt. Dean Spears:

“Some of the issues the inmates are responding to have been in place for a year or more. Cuts to college-level courses and vocational training programs happened last January, and the rolling lockdowns — in which a housing facility is locked down for an eight-hour shift every other day to free up staff to fill vacant positions — was initiated last March.

One is more recent: The quad is overseen by a new captain who has renewed an emphasis with prison staff on enforcing the facility’s rules and regulations, such as making sure that inmates cease whatever they’re doing when an alarm sounds, Spears said.”

The protest, it seems, is orderly. Inmates are refusing to go to the cafeteria three times a day for meals, but have continued performing their work and complying with (most) staff orders. Yesterday, we reported on how the California Department of Corrections has been shifting money from rehabilitation programs into security costs over the past few years.

FILED UNDER: Corrections, Budget, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Rehabilitation
July 28, 2010 | 11:06 AM | By

San Quentin U.

Great slideshow from Robert Rogers (audio) and Armand Emamdjomeh (photos) about the non-profit Prison University Project that operates inside San Quentin State Prison. It’s the only remaining free higher ed provider inside California’s adult prison system. It survived the latest round of cuts to prison rehab only by virtue of being self-funded. Rogers and Emamdjomeh are part of the News 21 project over at UC-Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, and we’ll be featuring work from the project all summer on Crosscurrents.

FILED UNDER: Corrections, Prison, Rehabilitation, San Quentin