Dewberry Innovation Case Study
Helping California Successfully Re-Integrate Released Inmates into Society
Dewberry Architects Design Prototype Re-Entry Facility with Goal of Reduced Recidivism
With one of the nation’s largest incarcerated populations, California faces a number of significant challenges in re-integrating released inmates into communities throughout the state. Chief among them: without effective programs for reducing recidivism among released inmates, the state will face a deepening of its budgetary crisis and find itself unable to build or staff enough facilities to handle an ever-growing prison population.
The Old Model, Badly Broken
It’s become clear that the old model – releasing inmates from the highly institutional and structured environment of prison directly back into the unstructured environments from which they came – was creating a revolving door that led far too often to re-incarceration. To address this issue, California embarked on a state-wide effort to create transition programs to address a full-range of needs among soon-to-be released inmates.
On the recommendation of a consultant hired to determine space needs for the new programs, the California Department of Correctional Rehabilitation (CDCR) engaged Dewberry to design three prototypical re-entry facilities that could be located throughout the state so that inmates hailing from across the state could be sent to a re-entry facility reasonably close to their home community.
Dewberry Innovation in Action
By their very nature, the types of transition activities planned by CDCR require unique spaces that must balance the often-competing needs of rehabilitation and security. Innovation came in the form of our architects designing facilities that are responsive to both conditions.
From the materials selected to the layout of spaces for providing vocational, physical, emotional, educational and medical therapies, our architects were able to design facilities that will help increase the odds that released prisoners will return to their communities prepared for a productive re-entry into society...and break the cycle of recidivism. At the same time, the facilities ensure the safety of staff, inmates and the public at large.
Building on Success
Not long after completion of the above-described project, CDCR awarded Dewberry with a contract for the $100 million conversion of the Northern California Regional Women’s Facility (NCWF) in Stockton into a re-entry facility that would incorporate the concepts from the prototype designs. We were also selected as architect-of-record for the $50 million redesign of the Calaveras County Sheriff’s office and detention center in San Andreas. Additionally, we’re designing the $350 million conversion of a juvenile corrections facility in Chino to a corrections reception center and are part of the design/build team on CDCR’s $700 million California Health Care Facility Project (CHCF).