The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and California Correctional Health Care Services have released new Mission and Vision statements.
They read:
- Mission -- To facilitate the successful reintegration of the individuals in our care back to their communities equipped with the tools to be drug-free, healthy, and employable members of society by providing education, treatment, rehabilitative, and restorative justice programs, all in a safe and humane environment.
- Vision -- We enhance public safety and promote successful community reintegration through education, treatment and active participation in rehabilitative and restorative justice programs
These changes come as a result of AB 2590, which added restorative justice to the purpose of imprisonment, along with punishment and rehabilitation, and directed the CDCR to update its mission statement accordingly.
The new statements are meant to reflect the joint priorities of creating a prison environment that provides the inmates with the tools necessary to be drug-free, healthy, and employable members of society after they are released.
In order to put these goals into action, the CDRC and CCHCS have created a list of new programs to ensure inmates have the tools they need to succeed.
This includes:
- Expanding substance use treatment to help battle the chronic illness of addiction and treat patients.
- Increasing capacity for the Cognitive Behavioral Intervention program .
- Increasing the capacity of the Career Technical Education program.
- Offering face-to-face community college programs in more prisons.
- Expanding community partnerships.
