Officials launched a new program that will use taxpayer money for the upward mobility of ex-felons including housing and support of ex-felons in Los Angeles County’s jail system.
Margarita Perez from the LA County Department of Probation says,”the goal is to link up to 300 individuals with the type of services they need to enable them to be self-sustaining, and quite frankly, move forward in their lives and lead law-abiding lives moving forward.” She added, “those are the individuals that are most likely to create harm in the community, so therefore you want to focus on that part of the population,” she said. “If you lower the recidivism rate, you reduce all kinds of costs,” Perez said. “Not only financially, but in terms of costs to society through victimization and all that goes with that.”
A Bay Area California company, Brillant Corners, is assisting to find local property managers willing to accept ex-cons for housing. This is done with the intent being that they become self-sufficient contributors of society and don’t have to leave the property once they move on from the program.
The Breaking Barriers program serves probationers in LA County who are adult felony offenders or AB109 early-release inmates and who have a generally moderate to high risk of reoffending.
Perez emphasizes the program, estimated to costs $6.2 million, should be looked at as an investment to the community and not as another expense. “Ultimately, it’s better for them,” Perez added. “It’s better for everybody if we’re able to link these individuals to the types of services they need, so they can be law-abiding citizens moving forward.”
This is a real ‘Bay to LA’ program being executed that has potential to become a national model the country could follow.
SOURCE: NBC
