Prisons: rehabilitation programs.

Existing law establishes the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to operate the state prison system. Existing law establishes various rehabilitation programs for inmates in the state prison, including literacy, education, and vocational training programs. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations regarding rehabilitation programs operated in state prisons. The bill would require the department to improve performance measures for in-prison rehabilitation programs, and would require those performance measures to include specified information, including the percentage of inmates nearing release from prison with unmet rehabilitation needs. The bill would also require the department to offer a cognitive behavioral therapy program at every state prison, and to require inmates identified as having a high risk of recidivism and high need for rehabilitation services to participate in a cognitive behavioral therapy program before being released from prison.