According to CBS Sacramento, the local Ascend rehabilitation program is showing impressive early results at reducing recidivism:
Taxpayers already pay at least $60,000 a year for each criminal who is locked up. When those convicts are released in California, more than six out of 10 end up behind bars.
But a first of its kind rehab class for criminals at the Hillsdale Career Center is teaching a new holistic way of thinking, behaving and living. Under that program, only 2 in 10 ex-convicts go back behind bars.
The convicted felons and repeat offenders are all learning important skills to turn their lives of crime around.
“When I relapsed, I ended up going full force,” said Robert Twofeathers. “I went back to the streets where I knew everything and could survive.
He says he’s been in federal prison and in and out of jail since he was 13 years old. But since enrolling in the Ascend Program in Sacramento, his goals have changed. Now he’s turning a life on the streets for street smarts.
“I’m in the process of getting my hand tattoos and my throat tattoos removed, and I’m going to school starting in summer for my EMT certificate and then the fire academy in the fall to become a fireman,” he said.
The program was developed by two criminal justice professors at Sacramento State, along with two criminal defense attorneys who teach the classes twice a week.
“They trust us, because we advocate for them, and we are able to teach them the law and how to navigate around it,” said program co-creator Christine Morse.
She says out of 100 criminals who have been through the program, 80 have not reoffended. That is a dramatic drop from the state average of 66 percent of criminals who find themselves back behind bars.