Napa County Community Corrections Service Center celebrated a decade of providing reentry services in their community with an open house and awards ceremony to recognize local stakeholders and partners on March 7. Since opening on March 2, 2009, the center has supported hundreds of at-risk offenders in transitioning back to their communities with evidence-based programming that has reduced recidivism among graduates to just 24 percent—a significant improvement over the national rate of 76 percent.
While the community now embraces the CCSC, which offers treatment to hundreds of probationers each year, many neighbors were reluctant to support a reentry center in the heart of their town. “There was a lot of concern about bringing a program into downtown where we would bring in offenders all day long,” Napa County’s Chief Probation Officer Mary Butler said in a recent interview.
Despite the early hesitance, leaders from the probation department, superior court and district attorney’s and public defender’s officers came together to form a committee and advocate for the benefits of reentry treatment. Napa County partnered with GEO Reentry to introduce an effective, multi-phase program with one-on-one therapy and life skills training like employment readiness, anger management and parenting classes.
At the recent awards ceremony, the local probation office presented Napa County CCSC with the Perfect Partner Award, a special recognition acknowledging the valuable partnership between the county and GEO Reentry.
Over the past decade, the CCSC has pioneered several innovative approaches to address participants’ criminal behavior, including an in-custody jail program that offers cognitive behavioral therapy to prepare offenders for release. Many recipients of the in-custody treatment transition to the community program upon exit to continue learning valuable skills that improve their reintegration and help them become productive members in their communities.
Additionally, the center has been able to introduce specialized programs to better serve its diverse population of offenders. Napa County’s unique programs for women and Spanish-speaking individuals are just a few examples of how the non-residential center is paving the way for more inclusive and representative reentry centers nationwide.