Program to thwart recidivism falters
Almost two years after California Attorney General Kamala Harris brought police, prosecutors and probation officers together in a bid to define recidivism, agencies still use a different barometer to define criminals who re-offend.
In November 2015, Harris launched an initiative aimed at reducing one of the nation’s highest rates of recidivism among people convicted of crimes. As many as two-thirds of those who are freed in California, she said, end up committing another crime within three years.
Her program designed to thwart recidivism was called Back On Track LA.
The “Back on Track LA” pilot program was expected to deliver critical education and comprehensive re-entry services before and after an individual is released from jail.
Harris’ team tweaked a program called the “Education Based Incarceration Program” run by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
What resulted was a partnership with the Los Angeles Community College District – specifically, Los Angeles Mission College and Los Angeles Trade Tech College to provide higher education opportunities for incarcerated participants that include prerequisites to community college degrees, credentials and certificates.
The plan called for program managers to focus on that “critical time following an individual’s release from jail” by providing “re-entry services” they would need for success, including employment and life skill services.
“Back on Track LA” would emphasize accountability by assigning participants a case manager or coach to develop a plan that would hold individuals accountable to their families, communities and victims.
Enrolling in “Back on Track” meant signing up for 24 to 30 months — split into 12 to 18 months in-custody and 12 months out-of-custody. Participants would be non-serious, non-violent and non-sexual crime offenders between 18 to 30 years old who were locked up in county jail under AB 109. That was the plan. This month, The Signal checked in on the program to see how it was doing.
At least 75 “Back On Track” participants worked with officials on ways to stay out of jail and not get re-arrested, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s office told The Signal this month.
Just 35 non-non-non participants “graduated” from the program, she said, citing a litany of roadblocks that hamper success. Key factors contributing to recidivism include substance abuse, hopelessness and mental illness, she said.
On July 12, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors called on several agencies including the LASD and the Office of Diversion and Reentry to come up with “law enforcement strategies for effectively and efficiently deterring high-frequency repeat offenders.”
The agencies have until October to deliver a “county wide strategy” addressing the issue of recidivism.
The latest numbers laid before them were not encouraging.
Statistics compiled by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reveal that 56 percent – more than half of released prison inmates are rearrested within one year of release and 69 percent are rearrested within two years.
“We measure recidivism as someone committing a new crime within three years,” Bill Sessa, spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told The Signal this month.
“The three year time span seems to be universally accepted as a baseline for data and a foundation for any research on the subject,” he said.