SB 551: Corrections and rehabilitation: state policy.

Under existing law, the Legislature finds and declares that the purpose of sentencing is public safety achieved through punishment, rehabilitation, and restorative justice, and that programs should be available for incarcerated persons, including educational, rehabilitative, and restorative justice programs that are designed to promote behavioral change and to prepare all incarcerated persons for successful reentry into the community. Existing law directs the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to maintain a mission statement consistent with these principles.

This bill would make legislative findings and declarations relating to corrections and rehabilitation, including, among others, that the Legislature recognizes that life in prison can never be the same as life in a free society, and that active steps should be taken to make conditions in prison as close to normal life as possible, aside from loss of liberty, to ensure that this normalization does not lead to inhumane prison conditions. The bill would direct the department to maintain a mission statement consistent with the principles of normalization and dynamic security, and would require the department to facilitate access for community-based programs.

Existing law provides that the primary objective of adult incarceration is to facilitate the successful reintegration of the individuals in the departments care back to their communities equipped with the tools to be drug-free, healthy, and employable members of society by providing education, treatment, and rehabilitative and restorative justice programs in a safe and humane environment.

This bill would include that the primary objective of adult incarceration is to promote personal growth for all residents in the departments care. The bill would also provide that the department should develop training for all correctional staff on the principles of normalization and dynamic security in order to meaningfully effectuate these principles.