How re-entry facility may reduce crime (Dec. 16)
By Glenna Jarvis
For The Madera Tribune
John Doe has a mental disorder. Medications help, but he can’t afford insurance and the cost of medication is too high. He turns toward self-medication: alcohol and methamphetamine. His dependence on the street drug increases and he has no way to support this habit. Eventually he turns toward selling drugs, robbery and burglary.
He turns his neighbors into victims of crime.
Arrested, tried and convicted he spends the next 10 years incarcerated in a state prison where he’s given the medication he needs and the time allows him to cleanse himself of the drug and alcohol addictions. He’s feeling better; his quality of life — regardless of incarceration — has improved. John sees all the possibilities life offers because his mental disorder is under control.
At the end of his 10-year sentence, he’s given the name of his parole agent, $200 and a bus ticket. Maybe he gets enough medication to keep his mental affliction controlled for two weeks. He has no home, no job, and no means of transportation. He moves in with a brother, but the brother’s wife isn’t happy about the arrangement and making room for John has displaced some of their children.
He runs out of medication. Just like before his conviction, the world closes in on him. Depression compounds the mental disorder and soon he’s looking for means to self medicate. The vicious cycle starts over until he’s committed another crime and created another victim.
This is one face of recidivism. In California, more than 70 percent of those who commit crimes reoffend and end up back in the state prison system.
Take the same scenario, only relocate John to a re-entry facility for the last year of his sentence. The facility is in the county he lived in prior to incarceration. Staff helps him reconnect with friends and family. Behavioral health services are available to him. He even learns some skills. When released, he’s moved to a home where he can live while he finds a job. He’s not alone. He has a chance to turn his life around and maybe avoid victimizing someone else in his community.
“It’s called continuity of care,” said Doug Papagni, chief of corrections at Madera County Jail. The process now used in the prison system — cutting off services cold once an inmate is released — has proven not to work, he said. “If we don’t do something, crime and recidivism will continue to get worse.”
During his 38-year career in corrections, Papagni has watched the current parole system fail. Closure of the state mental health facilities has shifted the burden of caring for mentally ill patients on the criminal justice and prison systems. Currently a high percentage of inmates held in Madera County jail are receiving treatment and psychotropic medications for their mental health problems.
Federal courts have ordered the governor to decrease the state’s prison population. In order to comply, 40,000 inmates must be released. By law, Papagni said, these prisoners will go back into the communities from which they came.
Over the next 18 to 24 months, Madera County will see 150 to 175 of these prisoners return through this early-release program. It’s only prudent, he added, to find ways to deal with these inmates once they come back to the county.
“We have to take steps today,” Papagni said. That step, while not a “quick fix,” is a re-entry facility that would provide the services and training necessary for an inmate to transition from prison to the community and to not quickly reoffend. Studies show that the first days and weeks after release are the most dangerous for the parolee and the community.
Criteria tied to inmates that would make them eligible for the re-entry program include
12 months remaining on their sentence, medium to high risk to recidivate, no serious in-custody rules violations and inmates with serious mental or medical cases would not be accepted.
“Because of the federal lawsuit, (these inmates are) coming back quicker,” Papagni said. “And they’re coming back unprepared. How are we going to deal with that? Be proactive, provide the beds and ensure they serve their entire sentence? Or are we going to fold our arms — no, we don’t want them? Either way they’re going to end up in our neighborhoods; (The re-entry facility) is the responsible thing to do for our community.”
He said this is the first time anyone has come up with a way to try to train inmates at the local level, “reconnect them with local services — all the things they need to be successful. And they’re putting money behind it.”
When Assembly Bill 900 was signed into law in May 2007, Papagni was ready to go after funds to expand the existing jail. Those funds — $30 million — are tied to the regional re-entry facility the state proposes to build in Madera County — a $170 million project.
AB 900 encourages using a site adjacent to an existing county jail and other services such as behavioral health, education services and local parole offices. The proposed Madera County site is situated near all of these facilities and services.
While it’s called a “re-entry facility,” Papagni said, “Let’s not try to fool anyone. It’s a prison. The inmates will not live outside those walls.”
Security, he added, will be every bit as tight as in a larger, state facility.
The building will be designed to blend in with the community and not look like a prison: No towers or lights. The building’s walls will create the secure perimeter so no new fence will be necessary.
“All services will be brought to them,” he said. “All programs will be conducted within the walls of that prison.”
One concern Papagni has heard expressed is the safety of nearby neighborhoods.
The area around the jail, which houses 400 inmates, is probably “one of the safest places to be,” he said. “Police presence in this neighborhood is very high. The jail is staffed 24-seven; patrol cars come and go day and night. There is a greater law enforcement presence here, in this neighborhood, than others.”
Another concern is that families would relocate to Madera if their loved ones are in the reentry facility. Papagni said the facility would house Madera County residents first, and be “backfilled” with inmates originating from Fresno County. Fears that family members would relocate in order to be closer to the inmate won’t come into play because Fresno is close by.
Programs include intensive substance abuse treatment, vocation training and job placement, education and GED course work, anger management classes, family counseling, housing placement and other services to help ease the transition from incarceration to a crime-free life.
“We have to remember; when people commit crimes they create victims,” Papagni said. “We need to take the proactive steps to protect the residents of Madera County.”
Several community outreach meetings are currently being planned for early 2010.
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Glenna Jarvis is legislative assistant to County Supervisor Vern Moss.
