Contact: Eric Reslock (916) 358-1802 (916) 764-1696, cell
CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate to Open National Correctional Industries Conference in Sacramento
April 1-4 event brings together correctional industries from all 50 states and England.
SACRAMENTO – California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) Secretary Matthew Cate will present the National Correctional Industries Association’s (NCIA) conference keynote address at the Sacramento Convention Center on April 1 at 3:30 P.M. following Sacramento Vice-Mayor Angelique Ashby’s welcoming address.
The NCIA Enterprise 2012 National Training Conference runs from April 1-4, 2012 and is hosted this year by the California Prison Industry Authority (CALPIA). The annual conference brings correctional industry professionals from all 50 states together to share knowledge, strengthen networks, and review products from private vendors. The conference will feature CALPIA executives heading workshops on leadership, management and offender reentry services.
CALPIA General Manager Chuck Pattillo said, “We are proud to host this year’s conference for our correctional industry colleagues from all 50 states and England. The annual NCIA conference has no equal in the field of corrections. This conference will also benefit the downtown Sacramento economy.”
The National Correctional Industries Association is an international nonprofit association whose members represent all 50 state correctional industry agencies, Federal Prison Industries, foreign correctional industries, and local jail industry programs. Private sector companies that work in partnership with correctional industries both as suppliers/vendors and apprenticeship partner work program coordinators are also members.
Correctional industries are the work programs in correctional facilities that provide real world work experience to offenders, teaching them transferable job skills and work ethic to help them prepare for post-release reentry and employment. They are the only self-funded reentry support program in corrections – no appropriated funds are required for their operation since they rely on the income generated by the sale of the products and services they produce through the program.
CALPIA manages 60 manufacturing, service, and agriculture correctional industries in 22 CDCR institutions. CALPIA provides employment and programming for approximately 7,000 offenders assigned to over 5,000 positions in manufacturing, agricultural, service enterprises, and selling and administration. Administrative offices are located in Folsom, California.
Ex-offenders who participated in CALPIA programs are less likely to return to prison than general population inmates.
CALPIA participants return to prison, on average, 24 to 30 percent less often than inmates released from the CDCR general population, saving the General Fund millions in incarceration cost avoidance. Offenders who participate in CALPIA’s Career Technical Education Program are 89 percent less likely to return to prison. CALPIA provides CDCR with over 7,000 alternative inmate programming positions, thereby saving CDCR more than $11 million annually in General Fund costs for rehabilitation positions that CDCR does not have to fund.
All CALPIA inmate participants must achieve a General Education Development (GED) degree within two years to continue participating in CALPIA.
CALPIA is a self-financed and self-sufficient state entity that receives all of its revenue from the sale of products it manufactures. The recidivism rate among CALPIA offenders is 24 to 30 percent lower than the general prison population, a success attributed to the job skills that they receive by working in CALPIA business enterprises.
