| Notes |
Since 2012, grand jury reports have indicated overcrowding at jails throughout Ventura County resulting from Realignment.12 In 2015, Ventura County partnered with Social Finance, Inc., as an intermediary and Interface Children and Family Services as a service provider to initiate a Social Impact Bond to reduce recidivism. The Ventura County Project to Support Reentry will focus on the use of Moral Reconation Therapy® (MRT), a “cognitive-behavioral treatment system that leads to enhanced moral reasoning, better decision making, and more appropriate behavior.”13 The founders of MRT claim it has been used in a wide range of correctional settings “[b]ecause of its remarkable success (notably with minority participants) . . . MRT research shows that participation and program completion by minority groups can significantly lower recidivism rates.”14 The Ventura County Project to Support Reentry will use MRT to treat “criminogenic thinking” defined as “antisocial attitudes, values, and beliefs.”15 The Ventura County Project to Support Reentry will make outcome payments to investors based on individual avoided arrests (as compared with a control group), and individual “clean quarters” or full quarters without arrest.16 The focus on recidivism to reduce overcrowding in California’s county jails emphasizes the personal responsibility of prisoners for their arrests, rather than changing policy to reduce arrests, convictions, or sentences.17 |