Proposition

Re-Entry Program Facilities: ($2,600,000,000 Lease Revenue)

Purpose: Funding the acquisition and construction of facilities to provide housing and services for inmates with up to a year left to serve on their prison sentence, located near the community in which the person will be released upon parole.

The centerpiece of Governor Schwarzenegger's comprehensive prison reform package is the creation of secure reentry facilities in the local communities where inmates will be returning upon release. These facilities are designed to improve public safety by reducing recidivism. Currently, inmates too often leave prison with nothing more than $200 minus the cost of a bus ticket, and have no prospects for success once they return home.

AB 900 will provide for 16,000 new beds in community-based reentry centers, each of which will house up to 500 inmates for their last 12 months in custody. These facilities will provide intensive rehabilitation, and offer offender job training, mental health and substance abuse counseling, housing placement, educational assistance, and other services in the critical few months just prior to their release.