In 1990 the California Department of Corrections tentatively began an
intensive "therapeutic community" treatment program at one institution,
the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. The program
(operated by Amity Foundation) used a "two step" model---providing
intensive treatment services facilitated by recovering
ex-addicts/ex-inmates both in prison and in the community when inmates
were paroled. The program was subject to a NIDA funded research study
which showed a drop in recidivism of over 40% for inmates who completed
both phases of the program. Based on these outstanding outcomes,
California expanded programs based on this model over the next decade to
over 12,000 inmates, with funding for 50% of them to access community
based treatment upon release.
This has been the largest single initiative in US history to address the
problem of criminal substance abusers extremely high recidivism
rate----which has driven the enormous expansion of prisons and jails
over the past two or three decades; eating up greater and greater
percentages of federal and state budgets.
While these programs have been extensively evaluated, and proven to
reduce recidivism substantially and to save tax payer dollars (while
improving public safety by reducing crime in the community), CDCR
announced reductions yesterday of 70% of the in-prison programs (going
from 12,000 inmates in treatment) to less than 3,000; and cuts of 40% in
community based programs serving inmates who have completed in-prison
programs. Hundreds of TC workers will be losing their employment on
October 19th, 2009---and thousands of inmates will lose the hope to get
off the recidivism merry-go-round; essentially doing a life sentence on
the installment plan. The Governor, a supposed proponent of prison
reform quickly offered up all of the recidivism reduction programs in
the department of corrections....While treatment providers argued that
eliminating treatment for the population that are the greatest
recidivists made no sense from a financial or public policy point of
view, the massive budget deficits in California made it difficult to
access legislators.
Information can be found on the Amity Foundation website
(www.amityfdn.org) particularly this article
http://www.amityfdn.org/Library/News%20Articles%20&%20Professional%20Pub
lications/2001-Mullen%20et.%20al.%20Bulding%20TC%20in%20Prison.pdf
Information on the entire initiative can be found in the Prison
Journal--fall of 1995 special issue edited by Harry Wexler.
Rod Mullen, CEO, Amity Foundation
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www.amityfdn.org
520 668 6640 (cell)
520 6749 7178
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