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PACEs in the Criminal Justice System

Discussion and sharing of resources in working with clients involved in the criminal justice system and how screening for and treating ACEs will lead to successful re-entry of prisoners into the community and reduced recidivism for former offenders.

Proposition 47: A failure to learn history’s lesson (sacbee.com)

 

In their laudable effort to reverse mass incarceration, California policymakers have been too slow to provide felons with necessary care and treatment upon their release.

That’s among the conclusions to be gleaned from an important reporting project by newspapers in Palm Springs, Ventura, Salinas and Redding analyzing Proposition 47, the 2014 initiative that cut penalties for drug possession and property theft, and reduced many crimes to misdemeanors.

“Thousands of addicts and mentally ill people have traded a life behind bars for a churning cycle of homelessness, substance abuse and petty crime,” says the report by The Desert Sun of Palm Springs, The Ventura County Star, The Redding Record Searchlight and The Salinas Californian.

The Proposition 47 aftermath is eerily familiar. In the late 1960s and 1970s, California authorities, motivated by the best of intentions, released patients from state hospitals, promising treatment in the community. That never happened, and the mental health care system never recovered. Having failed to learn from history, California may be doomed to relive it.

To read more of this article by the Editorial Board, please click here.

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Anna, I'm saddened to hear of this gentleman's pain and our systems not supporting his healing.  Every "system" should intentionally focus on supporting who they serve heal. Every professional who supports humanity should have their system support their own well being with compassion. Every individual deserves hope...

I'm uplifted knowing all of our 12,000 + ACEs Connection members, and many others, are on the front line of systems change and creating cultures of caring.

We've come a long way... and we have a long way to go.

Some time ago my husband and I were stopping by the police department (he's a detective) and a man was walking down the street.  My husband told me that he had just been arrested for a parole violation, but he had an untreated broken hand- because realignment the probation department wouldn't revoke his parole, our local jail wouldn't take him because of his injury... so there he went, back to the streets with an extremely painful injury.  Made me so sad.   

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