New California group forms to aid inmates’ return to society
SACRAMENTO » The most populous U.S. state not surprisingly has the most people being released from its prisons and jails. And now it has what organizers said Thursday is the nation’s first statewide coordinated effort to help them reintegrate back into the community.
The newly formed ReEntry Providers Association of California includes some of the state’s largest reentry service providers who plan to jointly lobby state and local government officials on behalf of former prisoners.
California typically releases as many as 35,000 people each year who have completed their jail sentences or been paroled from prison, the group said. But even that number soared during the pandemic as jails and prisons last year released thousands more inmates earlier than normal to allow for social distancing in normally crowded lockups.
The state has also been releasing more inmates earlier because of criminal justice reforms designed to reduce mass incarceration.
That means helping people being released from prisons and jails find housing and jobs “has never been more important,” said Susan Burton, founder and president of A New Way of Life Reentry Project in Los Angeles.
Yet the groups said they have historically been under-funded, overlooked and lacking as a government priority despite doing work they said is vital to protecting the safety and health of communities.
“REPAC is going to be that essential unified voice that we need to really help shape the conversations that are taking place all over the state. And there’s no better time for REPAC to have begun” as the state invests in rebuilding during the pandemic, said Sen. María Elena Durazo.