Recidivism after Realignment

I'm a Realignment hobbyist.  I'm not a professional, since I'm not paid by a government agency, think tank, or educational institution.  But, I have attended many of the same conferences as the professionals and poured over many of the same reports.  When AB109 was passed, the landmark legislation popularly known as Realignment, the justification for it's enactment was to reduce recidivism.

Left to policy maker's, and ultimately, the public's imagination, was the issue: What is recidivism and how is it calculated?  Black's Law Dictionary tells us that recidivism is, "a tendency to relapse into a habit of criminal activity or behavior." A lay-person might assume that the recidivism rate includes any offenses committed by a convicted person at any time after their conviction.

But what constitutes an offense?  Is it any offense, jaywalking, for example, that makes an ex-offender a recidivist? Or is it only the commission of a felony?  Does violating parole terms, such as failing to report to a parole officer at an appointed time, or consuming alcohol trigger the recidivist label?  How about the time frame?  Does re-offense within a year constitute recidivism?  How about 5 years?  Or, is it only counted during the time one is on parole?

The State's recidivism calculation is no longer relevant. Parolee's (the new lexicon is PRCS, which stands for post release community supervision), for the most part, are no longer being monitored by the State. Instead, they are monitored by county probation departments. The aggregate data, computed by each of the 58 counties is what matters, now.  How recidivism is defined, and calculated is a significant issue. So far, the counties don't agree on how the rate is calculated.

When the concept of Realignment was introduced to local governments, it was claimed that California's recidivism rate was 70%.  According to the CDCR's latest recidivism report, which was calculated in 2011, released in 2012, and spans the years 2002 through 2009, the return-to-custody rate for prisoners released for 1 year ranged between 45.2% and 49.1%, depending on the year.  For prisoners released for 2 years, the highest rate in the range was 62.5%. And, for prisoners released for 3 years the highest rate in the range was 67.5%.  Intuitively, the longer time period reviewed, the greater the number of incidences of returns-to-custody.

I attended a conference lead by Matt Cate, then Secretary of  CDCR, and Karen Pank, Executive Director of Chief Probation Officers of California. The question was asked, how will we know if Realignment is working? The answer given was when we see the recidivism rate improve.  But without uniform calculations and reconciling the aggregate recidivism rate with former methods of calculation, how can we give true meaning to any of the numbers reported.

Realignment has been in effect for less than 2 years.  Based on the length of time previously needed to calculate recidivism rates and the increased complexity of compiling all of the data from the 58 different counties, it seems likely that any numbers currently quoted represent 12 months of data. Before Realignment, the one year recidivism percentile was in the high 40's.  I'm worried that policy makers will crunch one year's worth of data, find that it's somewhere in the 40 percentile and claim victory.  I'm even more worried that policy makers will hit the reset button every year, and not report the data based on 2 and 3 years stretches.  A recent blog post by California State Association of Counties, Executive Director, Matt Cate (yes, the same Matt Cate) confirms that I have good reason to worry.



The Greatest Generation

Sad news last week prompted tweets and postings about the America's greatest generation.  One Facebook user asked people to share stories heard from World War II veterans about their experiences in the war.  Her point was to celebrate her and other's grandparent's contributions, as well as, raise awareness of the incredible value of our very senior seniors.

My grandfather, whom I was very close to, almost never spoke of the war.  But growing up, I knew it was there, lurking in his mind.  His habit was to fall asleep on the couch with the TV on.  And, when I was old enough, my job, when I visited, was to wake him when Barney Miller, or The Rockford Files ended, and it was time for bed.

There were two methods for waking my grandfather. Grandma, generally, chose the verbal method.  Standing several feet away she would say in a loud voice, "J.P. It's time to go to bed.  Get up now, Hun.  J.P."  I preferred the tool method.  I would hold a long backscratcher, kept nearby for this purpose, and stroke the bottom of my grandfather's feet.

Regardless of which method was used to wake him, his response was always the same.  He jolted up.  The arm closest to the couch was cocked in a ready position.  The arm away from the couch swung swift and violent towards the speaker, or the device.  His eyes were piercing but not quite clear.  Then recognition would dawn and he'd ease back to the couch and recover himself. 

My confession is that I perversely enjoyed his reaction.  On one level it was predictably funny.  On another level it was dangerous - get too close and you'll get clobbered.

When I was old enough to understand, my grandmother explained that in the Pacific Theater the Japanese fought hard and ferocious. They employed the guerilla tactic of silent knife attacks while the US soldiers slept in their foxholes. Such an attack happened to my grandfather.  His foxhole buddy was on watch, but evidently, fell asleep.  He was killed. My grandfather awoke, fought, and killed the Japanese soldier.  Then fought for another year from island to island.

He almost never talked about the war, but I knew it never left him.

JP Miller, 1945, Philippines

 

Career Advice from the Homeless

Running a bail bond agency while attending law school is quite a challenge.  I'm certain I could do either one better if I weren't doing the other.  But, I'm stubborn.  And, too many people know I'm in school.  My vanity would suffer were I to quit. Having study material with me wherever I go and using it every moment that is not otherwise occupied is the only way I can keep up.

Yesterday, I had a meeting to attend and ran errands on my way.  I completed the errands sooner than I expected so I bought a sandwich, grabbed a casebook and took position at a picnic bench in a park near my appointment.  I do that often.  I even carry a folding chair, my "soccer chair", so that I can be comfortable no matter the conditions. I imagine that people seeing me with my stout, nondescript book guess that I'm some sort of evangelist studying the bible.

A homeless man, dirty, mostly toothless and drinking a tall can of beer, occupied the bench next to mine.  When I approached, in my shirtsleeves and tie, I nodded a greeting - an acknowledgment.  He studied me for a moment then nodded back.  I sat facing the other way, my back to him. I unfolded the wrapping around my sandwich, opened my book, and craned my neck so that I would not drop bits of ham, tomato, or avocado on the page. 

After a while, the man let out an impressive belch.  I turned the page.  Several minutes later, the man rose from his bench, took hold of his bike and walked my direction.  Still seated, I squared my shoulders to face him.  Our eyes locked and he asked, "King James?"

I knew my answer would disappoint him, but I gave it anyway, "No, this is a law book.  I'm in law school."

He stopped, stared at me and said, "Well, just be sure you're become a lawyer, and not a liar.  That's what we call them, Liars"

He waited for me to respond. I didn't have much. "Some of them are paid to lie."

His appraisal of me was completed, he mounted his bike and as he pedaled away, he shook his head with a patronizing, one-tooth smile and said, "Yeah, but there's more to life than money."

Wisdom comes in all shapes.  I'm glad I can still be surprised.

Savoring the Old

Savoring the Old
In the post-war years, exuberant entrepreneurial efforts to attract customers manifested in the erection of ever larger and louder signs.  Skylines were crowded out by proprietor's names, offers of cheap services, directions to "Stop Now" or "Come In", and features to be found inside - "Air Conditioned".

Residents and their municipal governments became concerned with the proliferate signage and curtailed roadside advertising. Existing signs could stay, but new ones had to fit within a narrowly defined sign ordinance.  If a business changed hands and the sign was altered, the sign had to comply with the ordinance.  The skyline changed as the old signs came down.

Remnants of the old can be found in today's cities.  In some instances a sign becomes a beloved artifact of days gone by and a source of pride.  Here's one in Chico.  I found this interesting because the blandness of today's standard sits at the foot of a magnificent bird hovering over the block.

Inmate Phone Charges

Inmate Collect Calls

The FCC ruled against excessive phone charges to inmates (story linked below).  So what, you may ask.  It's easy to be calloused towards jail inmates.  "They deserve what they get", the thinking goes, followed by, "Society coddles them too much." 

In my experience, the inmate's family are impacted the most by phone charges at the jail.  The Charges are excessively high.  To place a call from jail, an inmate must call collect, whether the inmate has been convicted or not. A 5 minute local call costs upwards of $20.

Hopefully, you've never received a call like that, but it starts with the recording, "This is a COLLECT call from the -blank- Detention Facility..."  In order to accept the call, you must type in a credit card number.

An inmate's family bears lots of expense when a family member goes to jail.  The costs include defense costs, fines, penalties, loss of income, child care, pet care, hygiene essentials purchased from the jail commissary, and collect phone calls.  Often times the family has no choice but to decline the phone call.  Jail staff will tell you that lack of communication with family results in higher incidents of disruptive behavior.  Disruptive behavior increases danger to staff, other inmates, and requires greater use of resources to quell.

Companies bid against each other for the lucrative contract to provide phone services to a detention facility.  The contracts routinely include kick-backs to the detention facility.  Detention managers justify the gouging by using the revenue to fund programs cut by county budgets.  Programs such as, an inmate library, high school education classes, coping skills classes, and substance abuse treatment have been funded by phone service revenues.

Realignment encourages social service providers  to participate in the setting of criminal justice system priorities and budgets. In-custody treatment programs will be more effective when created and funded in a proper budget process than backfilled from phone service kick-backs. And, inmates will be better able to maintain connection with their families, which makes for a safer jail environment, and improved recidivism rates once the inmate is released from custody.

http://cnet.co/17cWRi3