REVOLVING DOORS: Amid the clutter, some hope

San Diego County taking lead with reforms

By TERI FIGUEROA and MARK WALKER - Staff Writers | Thursday, November 27, 2008 8:09 PM PST ∞

A state of emergency has been declared, a federal panel of judges has been convened, statewide commissions have been formed, strike teams of prison reform experts have been assembled and thousands of pages of white papers have been generated.

For more than a decade, California has been engaged in a Herculean effort to fix its deeply flawed corrections system and reverse a costly and disturbing trend that sees seven out of every 10 parolees back in prison within months of their release.

Read more on Revolving Doors: Parole system in crisis

It's hard to see amid all the politicking and posturing from powerful special interests, but a subtle shift is beginning to occur in the way the state deals with criminals, one that shucks the emphasis on punishment in favor of one that offers more help.

Three decades after California began dismantling rehabilitation, the state is inching back to what it once did better than any other state in the nation: remaking prisoners into model citizens.

"We are trying to stop the crime on the front end, as opposed to housing them on the back end," said Seth Unger, spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Yes, it costs money. And, yes, the state is broke.

But Unger and others say the reforms are "an investment in public safety, because the likelihood they are going to commit new crimes and leave new victims in their path is greatly reduced."

And San Diego County is leading the way.

'This is about public safety'

Earlier this year, the county became the first in the state to launch a program that helps parolees find jobs and housing, and provides each with intense oversight through a plan tailored for each person.

And from all early indications, it seems to be a success. The number of parolees returned to prison within the first 90 days of release is less than half that of the general parolee population.

The $3 million-a-year approach ---- dubbed SB 618 after the state Senate bill that created it ---- shifts the philosophy from "You're on your own" to helping the former inmates find jobs and housing, and kick the addictions that land many in a constant churn of prison to parole to prison.

"We had to do something better," said Lisa Rodriguez, a prosecutor working with the program.

The San Diego County district attorney's office primarily wrote the legislation that created the program.

"I saw the importance of treatment and accountability, the need to get them back on their feet again," said District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. "This is about public safety ---- when we save somebody from committing another crime to support their addiction, we have saved a victim."

Parolees in the program get job training while in prison, a social worker to guide them and help finding a place to live when they leave prison. They'll even get a ride from the prison gates if needed.

"If you talk to somebody in prison, they are afraid of getting out," Rodriguez said. "They have no money, no place to stay, no job and no support. This is a different approach."

It is light-years from what most prisoners get while behind bars.

Drug addictions, lack of job skills and illiteracy are targeted.

Those who take part get far more guidance and access to help than their prison brethren. And they get job training and other programs ---- which most prisoners do not.

Deciding who goes back

Another experiment is under way, this one at the state level, to come up with a way to assess each parolee for failure risks as well as figure out alternatives to prison, should their behavior slide.

The new system is called the Parole Violation Decision Making Instrument. It is part of a pilot program in four sites in the state, including Chula Vista. A formula takes into account the seriousness of the parole violation and the level of risk that the parolee will commit a crime.

Under the program, low-risk parolees with minor violations such as dirty drug tests might not go directly to jail. Instead, they might be placed in a treatment program.

It means agents can take into account the stability of their parolees' lives, whether they have a job and whether they have a place to live.

"Our goal is to give parole agents the tools they need to make stronger decisions that are smart on crime, while being tougher on higher-risk offenders," said Matthew Cate, secretary of the state's corrections department, in an October press release announcing the program.

"Rather than just issuing blanket parole revocations and sentencing violators to sit on a prison bunk for a few months at a time, this instrument will help target custody resources."

While the program is new, the concept is not. Benny Benavidez, who oversees parole services in San Diego and Imperial counties, said his agents already work with such diversion programs in mind.

"We've come a long way," Benavidez said. "We really have. Twenty years ago, we were fully in punitive mode, retribution all the way. But with this new parole model, we've turned the corner on that.

"Our focus now is trying to bring about change by changing the offender. And we are trying to keep the community safe."

The point is not to coddle criminals, officials said. The point is to deal with the systemic problems behind the overcrowding. And to keep communities safer.

A collaborative approach

Analyzing re-entry is one of the main functions of the San Diego Re-Entry Roundtable, a monthly gathering of folks from criminal justice and social work communities, including those who provide sober living and job programs for parolees.

It is about 6 years old, and developed out of work local leaders did with the Urban Institute for Justice, a nonprofit economic and social policy research organization.

The Re-Entry Roundtable is not an official organization, but rather a collaboration of local folks with a common goal: the safe and successful return of offenders in San Diego County, said Anita Paredes, who chaired the group for five years and is the executive director of the Community Resource Center.

The group does not provide services, but rather evaluates what is available and how to make it match the needs of parolees.

For example, Paredes pointed to the problem parolees face in coming out of prison with no identification card, and no money to get one ---- a real problem for someone searching for a job.

"We need to eliminate practical barriers from the beginning, because people get frustrated by them," Paredes said.

The meetings are usually made of up of four or five dozen people ---- including pastors, parole administrators, probation officers, prison officials and service providers.

The diversity of the gathering makes for "a shared pool of knowledge" to pinpoint problems and brainstorm solutions, Paredes said.

"We are trying to educate the public and change the culture of welcoming people back to the community," she said. "We talk about those broader issues, but we are looking at the practical things we can do."

'Beyond reach?'

It's unlikely the roundtable's efforts, or the new programs launched last year by the county and the state, will make much of a dent in the parole system's nagging problems.

Experts agree it will take years to implement reforms on the massive scale needed, and several years beyond that to see positive results.

But San Diego's efforts are reaching folks who otherwise might not have received help, officials say.

Local cops, social workers and lawmakers worry that all the programs, new and otherwise, soon may become even more overwhelmed with a new crop of needy parolees.

A panel of federal judges is meeting in San Francisco to decide how best to ease chronic overcrowding in the state's prison system. They are considering the early release of tens of thousands of prisoners, many of whom would be returned to San Diego County.

A strike team of prison reform experts established by the governor warned that "there are no silver bullets and we should not underestimate the difficulties of implementing reform."

"All of us ... have to pull in the same direction at the same time, something we are not well-rehearsed at doing and, in fact, something we seem unable to do with respect to California corrections," the team continued.

"But unless we are able to do so, it is unlikely we will see any significant changes in the horrific conditions inside our state's prisons, and rehabilitation will certainly remain beyond reach."

Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 740-5442 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.

Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.