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ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS |
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1601 W. JEFFERSON
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JANET NAPOLITANO |
DORA SCHRIRO |
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Media Advisory
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For more information contact: Nolberto Machiche Bill Lamoreaux(602) 542-3133 |
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April 15, 2008 |
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Arizona Department of Corrections Reform Receives National Recognition
Phoenix, AZ - The Arizona Department of Corrections is being recognized by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School for implementing one of the nation’s Top 50 innovative programs. The Department’s real world re-entry initiative, Getting Ready: Keeping Communities Safe, is one of 50 Programs in the top five percent of all entries selected by an expert panel of practitioners and policy experts for inclusion in its prestigious 2008 Innovations in American Government Awards Program.
Getting Ready is a pragmatic pre-release program in which state inmates participate. Starting the first day of their sentence and continuing through their last, inmates acquire and apply in simulated real world situations, the literacy, sobriety, employability and social skills that are essential to their success and our safety when they are released. Getting Ready is premised on the research that ex-felons are more likely to be law abiding and self-sufficient in the community when they have ample opportunity to acquire and practice these skills and reap the consequences, good and bad, commensurate with their efforts, throughout their incarceration. This approach yields the measurable benefits of reducing violence in prison and cutting relapse, revocation and recidivism in the community.
The Department implemented its initiative in FY 2004. Since then, there has have been appreciable improvements in prison operations and public safety. Specifically, institutional violence is down. Inmate-on-inmate assaults have dropped 37 percent; inmate-on-staff assaults decreased 51 percent. Sexual assaults have declined 70 percent and suicides are down 33 percent.
The community is safer. Relapse to drugs and alcohol is down with 24 percent fewer positive urine analysis results. Technical revocations are down as well 32 percent. Recidivism for the cohort of 2,674 inmates completing Getting Ready in its entirety since FY 2004 is just 1.87 percent.
Pro-social problem solving is better. Inmate grievances are down 17 percent; medical grievances, 20 percent; and new inmate lawsuit filings concerning conditions of confinement, 42 percent.
More inmates are readied for the real world. Arizona inmates have earned over 27 percent of all GED certificates awarded in the state in each of the past three years. Today, 74 percent of all inmates have a high school equivalency diploma. Nearly 12,500 inmates have completed one of 61 jobs training programs. Almost two-thirds of the prisoner population is productively engaged everyday in school, work and treatment.
Inmates increasingly accept responsibility for their criminal conduct and its impact on crime victims. Arizona inmates raised $831,499 for Arizona crime victims’ agencies over the past four years, and today they have exceeded $1,000,000 in donations. Compliance with court-ordered restitution has also improved 23 percent per inmate.
This system-wide reform has been accomplished within existing resources. It’s available within five years of inception, the Arizona Department of Corrections has redeployed staff, space and time, to expand capacity and improve long term outcomes, by correcting Corrections.
About the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation The Roy and Lila Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation advances excellence in governance and strengthens democratic institutions worldwide. Through its research, publications, leadership training, global network, and awards program – developed in collaboration with a diverse, engaged community of scholars and practitioners - the Ash Institute fosters creative and effective government problem-solving and serves as a catalyst for addressing many of the most pressing needs of the world’s citizens. The Ford Foundation is a founding donor of the Institute. Additional information about the Ash Institute is available at www.ashinstitute.harvard.edu. Applicants for the 2009 Innovations in American Government Awards are encouraged to apply at www.innovationsaward.harvard.edu.
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