Corrections and rehabilitation: state policy.

Senator Cortese, together with coauthors including Senators Becker, Umberg, and Weber Pierson and Assembly Member Schultz, advances a corrections framework that treats incarceration as a setting for personal growth and reintegration, anchored by the principles of normalization and dynamic security. The core change reframes the purpose of confinement to encompass not only public safety through punishment and rehabilitation but also the development of individuals who can reenter their communities equipped for meaningful, law-abiding lives.

The bill’s amendments articulate a revised objective of sentencing and incarceration, emphasizing that public safety is achieved through punishment, rehabilitation, and restorative justice, with deprivation of liberty serving the punishment purpose while the core aim of incarceration includes rehabilitation and successful reintegration through education, treatment, and active participation in rehabilitative and restorative justice programs. Programs are to be delivered in alignment with the individual treatment needs of incarcerated persons. A new standalone provision codifies findings and directives around normalization and dynamic security, directing the department to maintain a mission statement aligned with these principles, facilitate access to community-based programs, and develop staff training on normalization and dynamic security to enact the framework.

Implementation focus centers on a governance commitment from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to maintain a mission aligned with normalization and dynamic security, to facilitate access for community-based programs, and to expand training for staff on the relevant principles. The bill retains the existing sentencing mechanics but situates them within a policy framework that foregrounds personal growth and reintegration. It also envisions broader access to educational, rehabilitative, and restorative programs, with enrollment encouraged rather than mandatory, and it specifies retroactive potential for recall and resentencing provisions under certain circumstances.

Stakeholder implications span incarcerated individuals, correctional staff, and community-based providers. The findings highlight health and well-being considerations for staff and incarcerated populations, the role of dynamic security in sustaining safer environments, and the potential for normalization to prepare individuals for productive release. Community-based organizations are positioned as integral to delivering rehabilitative programs within the prison setting, while victims’ participation rights in sentencing and related proceedings remain part of existing processes. Fiscal considerations indicate oversight by the fiscal committee, with no explicit new appropriation, leaving implementation to internal budget decisions and future policy guidance. In the broader context, the measure presents a shift toward a rehabilitation- and reintegration-oriented corrections policy that relies on policy guidance, partnerships, and administrative execution to realize its objectives.