Prisoner Resettlement Program

The Society supports a Prisoner Resttlement Program, which responds to the needs of men and women who are approaching release from prison by assisting them in their transition back to wholeness and a productive life in society.

Currently, California incarcerates more than 150,000 men, women and youth; the highest incarceration rate in the country.  Indeed, Los Angeles County registers almost 36,000 parolees a year with a re-arrest rate of 32 percent; 18 percent higher than for California as a whole.  That is because treatment and rehabilitation programs available to inmates in the California Department of Corrections are difficult to verify as these programs remain on the Department of Corrections “books” whether or not they actually take place or are accessible to the inmates.

Consequently, 80 percent of the parolees presently enrolled in the Prisoner Resettlement Program received no treatment programming while they were incarcerated.

As a result, the goal of Prisoner Resettlement Program is to break the cycle of falling back into drugs, gangs and crime by:

     
  • Assisting parolees in developing skills that empower them to be successful in their educational, social, employment and faith settings;
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  • Encouraging parolees to establish a more positive environment that will nurture their transition back into the community; and
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  • Engaging the involvement of the local community to furnish the support these men and women need in order to become productive citizens again.

The program achieves these goals by providing soon to be released inmates and parolees with:

     
  • A team of mentors that visit inmates while they are in prison and furnish them with support and guidance upon their release;
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  • A needs assessment and action plan with short and long-term goals to develop independent living skills;
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  • Assistance finding housing and first months rent; and
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  • Help with filing paperwork for government, educational and vocational programs, as well as assistance with maintaining contact with the parole board and the stipulations of their parole.