This week, the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) released the first in a series of reports on statewide recidivism reduction efforts from California's prison population realignment scheme enacted in 2011.
The PPIC report finds that while the overall statewide prison population has reduced and the arrest rates of offenders have slightly decreased, the proportion of those arrested multiples times has made a sharp increase. Additionally, the report finds that the proportion of released inmates returning to state prison has made a considerable downward trend, providing a hint that county realignment implementation has contributed to the state’s success. It is important to note that the PPIC report did not include county-level recidivism reduction data or trends. RCRC anticipates additional reports from county realignment implementation perspectives will be released in the future as more county-level data becomes available.
The PPIC report can be accessed here.