Inland Valley Bulletin: State Prison Rehabilitation Programs Being Cut

Prison rehab suffers

California budget crisis forces reductions in many programs

 

Neil Nisperos, Staff Writer

Created: 04/17/2011 07:01:35 AM PDT

Inland Valley Bulletin

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

With the state facing an ongoing fiscal crisis, its prison system has been forced to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from its inmate rehabilitation programs, and expects to cut another $150 million in the coming fiscal year.  
In the past two years, $250 million has already been cut from academic, vocational and substance abuse programs for inmates and parolees.
 
The cuts represented a third of the overall budget for adult programs, and resulted in 126 layoffs of program staffers, most of whom were teachers, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Elizabeth Siggins, chief deputy secretary of adult rehabilitation programs for the California Department of Corrections, said officials are still in the process of trying to determine the most effective way of implementing the upcoming reductions.

 
"We will have to make reductions in many areas of our rehabilitative programs," Siggins said. "Those areas where we provide services through contract are going to be the most vulnerable because of the one-time nature of the reductions, so that is some of our substance abuse programming, and our after-care parolee services in particular."
 
The ongoing reductions to programs designed to help inmates turn their lives around have concerned law enforcement and prison experts over possible impacts to recidivism and public safety.
 
"You hope when people are released, they have developed something they can offer not only to their families, but also to society, and be law-abiding citizens able to find gainful employment," said Jodi Miller, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. "So with that funding being reduced, and the amount of rehabilitation being reduced, absolutely that jeopardizes opportunities to learn some type of gainful employment."
 
Reductions to substance abuse counseling are particularly troubling, said Jennifer Walsh, professor of political science at Azusa Pacific University and a board member of the Association for Criminal Justice Research.
 
"Chemical addictions defy normal deterrents, so when you cut substance abuse counseling and rehab, there's no resource to fight that particular crime," Walsh said. "It looks like they're retaining the literacy and high school equivalency programs, and those are definitely important ones to preserve. I am troubled by substance abuse program cuts. I think that could be a mistake, and I think these programs need to be funded because they've proven to be successful."
 
Aref Fakhoury, warden of the California Institution for Men, also voiced concern over the loss of funding for rehab programs at the Chino prison. In the past two years, the number of inmates involved with the substance abuse program had dropped from 650 inmates to 150.
 
"If we lose money, I don't see where we're going to cut anymore, so that's going to be a concern for me," Fakhoury said.
 
CIM spokesman Lt. Mark Hargrove said the prison has solicited help from volunteer organizations to provide program support and supplement programs. Groups that help include Alcoholics Anonymous, Veterans in Prison, the Victim Offender Education Group, and the Center for the Empowerment of Families.
 
Lt. Felix Figueroa, spokesman of the California Institution for Women in Chino, said the number of inmates involved in educational and substance abuse programs have been reduced with the cuts in recent years.
 
"We haven't really lost permanent programs, but we've had to reduce our numbers," Figueroa said. At least for CIW, the inmates understand there is a budgetary issue. It's not just with the prison. They know when times were fat, times were good, and now we're in the lean times. There are cuts all the way around."
 
Despite cuts to vocation and education, state corrections has prioritized much of the remaining money on literacy and programs designed to help inmates earn the equivalent of a high school diploma. Officials said those programs reach the most offenders and are most likely to reduce recidivism.
 
State corrections officials said their realignment plan to reduce in inmate crowding at the state prisons, by shifting low level offenders to county jails, should help mitigate the impact of reduced rehabilitation programs.
 
"We've done everything we can to minimize the impact to recidivism as a result of these reductions, but it's certainly a reality that less people are receiving services," Siggins said. "Hopefully, in better financial times, this can be reversed. We will be working hard to retool our programs so in the (future), we can be able to accommodate the changes as a result of the realignment."