GEO Reentry Services was recently chosen to manage a day reporting center in Imperial County, Calif., in partnership with the Imperial County Sheriff’s Office.
The center commemorated its March opening with an open house celebration in May, which included a keynote speech from Imperial County Superior Court Presiding Judge Poli Flores, who discussed the center’s merits.
Among the services provided by the center are counseling, behavioral therapy, anger management classes and life skills courses, like job interview techniques and parenting skills. All treatment and therapy is founded on evidence-based practices designed to change criminal thinking.
Like all GEO Reentry-run DRCs, the center combats recidivism and the high cost of incarceration by giving offenders the tools to becoming productive members of society.
The center was created in response to California’s Public Safety Realignment legislation, known as AB 109, which became effective in 2011 and shifted the responsibility of low-level offenders from state prisons to county jails or probation supervision in the community.
The legislation was enacted in response to the state’s continually worsening prison overcrowding problem and placed an emphasis on counties establishing evidence-based programs, including day reporting centers, drug courts and electronic monitoring programs.
In 2011, in preparation of the legislation, the Imperial County Community Corrections Partnership established the following goals for implementation of AB 109.
- Maintain offender accountability and public safety
- Responsibly manage impact on jail population capacity
- Successful alternative sentencing options
- Inspire public confidence
- Offender rehabilitation
GEO Reentry-run DRCs provide alternatives to detention that focus on changing criminal behavior by targeting the source of the behavior, while keeping the public safe. Our intensive programs entail mandatory reporting to the center and drug testing, and are often complemented by electronic monitoring services managed by providers like our sister company BI Incorporated.
You can learn more about our approach, here.