The Assembly Public Safety Committee Passed Senator Cortese’s SB 551 With the Goals of Increasing the Life Span of State Correctional Officers and Decreasing the Number of Inmates Who Reoffend

SACRAMENTO –  Senator Dave Cortese’s (D-Silicon Valley) SB 551 is an effort to improve the prison stress level for correctional officers and the rehabilitative environment for inmates so they can return to their communities and not re-offend. Today it passed the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

“My bill is designed to help decrease the early death rate of our state’s prison  guards due to stress and prepare people who are incarcerated for a successful reentry into the community. About 85 percent of California prison inmates are released into our neighborhoods. Re-offenses have been as high as 70 percent in California. This bill is designed to dramatically reduce recidivism,” said Senator Dave Cortese.

• Nationally the average life expectancy of a correctional officer is 59-years-old which is 16 years shorter than people who do not work in corrections.
• SB 551 puts into state code the principles of “Normality and Dynamic    Security” with the goal of fostering a safer rehabilitative culture within the California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. 

• The principle of Dynamic Security, which is the direct, ongoing, and respectful communication between correctional staff and incarcerated persons is a key component of the safest prisons.
• In 2023, Assembly Bill 1104 (Chapter 560, Statutes of 2023) stated that the purpose of incarceration is to provide rehabilitative services to incarcerated people so they can be successfully and safely reintegrated into the community.

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