After the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) expanded its mission to provide rehabilitative programs, the agency set a goal in 2012 to reach 70% of eligible people. Last week, PPIC researcher Heather Harris presented a report that studies people released from prison between 2015 and 2019, detailing their needs as they enter prison, CDCR programs that address those needs, and factors that may contribute to participation.

Upon entering prison, 41% of people need basic education courses, based on CDCR assessment tools. Harris explained that most prisoners test at middle school levels in reading and math; a majority (68%) also need programs to treat substance use disorder while 41% need employment training.

Adult basic education and high school courses were already available across the prison system before the program expansions, but CDCR added slots to meet need. For rehabilitative programs, CDCR both added programs and tripled the number of slots. Employment programs also expanded to more prisons—and the number of slots tripled as well—however, only certain sites could offer career technical education that required special facilities, such as an auto shop; these limits restricted the number of people who could access or move through programs.

Although program participation increased dramatically over time, Harris said participation has remained low. At most 22% of eligible prisoners participated in an education course, 19% in a substance use disorder program, and 28% in an employment program. However, targeting programs to the people who need them based on CDCR assessments has proven challenging: of those who needed a specific program, 43% took the basic level of adult basic education, 20% participated in substance use treatment, and 24% participated in CDCR’s Transitions, an employment program.

Many factors can contribute to nonparticipation; Harris highlighted logistical challenges the prison system may face. “Prisons struggle to hire teachers, especially prisons in remote areas, and that reduces the number of available slots. In addition, people in prisons often move [each day] … if those movements are from yard to yard or prison to prison, program participation can be interrupted,” Harris said. Furthermore, about 40% of prisoners spent one year or less in prison—less time in prison means a person may have less opportunity to participate in prison programs.

While Harris clarified that the report does not yet associate recidivism to program participation, it does observe trends in outcomes. For the study cohort, two years after release, 37% of people were reconvicted, a 7 percentage-point drop compared to numbers reported in 2012. But that decrease may be due to the pandemic intersecting with the years people were released. Notably, people with prior prison histories were more likely to be reconvicted than first-timers.

In light of low participation rates, future investment in prison programs is still necessary. Harris stressed the need for greater support around substance use treatment and violence prevention: people are likely to commit domestic violence when they return home, and substance use poses the greatest threat to reentry, with high drug rearrest rates after prison.

Upcoming PPIC research will expand to look at people released from prison between 2020 and 2023. Along with taking a deeper dive into prison programs, PPIC will examine other limiting factors around program participation.