ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERs
Keith announced that the annual Christmas party will be December 2nd at his house at 4:00. Please sign up and indicate how many of you are coming.
Kate announced that the symphony league’s big fundraiser home tour will be December 1st and 2nd. See her for tickets….
Next Thursday is the Foundation Board Meeting at 11:00.
Remember your Rotary Foundation pledges are due in November. See John Fisher to pay.
Next Thursday November 15th there is a fundraiser for Rising International at the tech museum in San Jose. A special price for Rotarians has been set at $125. If you wish to go see Pam or Doug.
Our speakers today were Cynthia Chase and Sgt. Karen Wells from the re-entry and rehabilitation Rountree facility in Watsonville. The new facility was opened in July of this year. The facility is funded by AB 109 and SB 1022 for “prison realignment”.
It allows for people who have committed non-serious crimes to do their time locally and relieve stress on overburdened prisons. This is a new kind of a facility for rehab and re-entry purposes. The ultimate goal is to increase public safety by reducing recidivism. Currently 7 out of 10 people return to prison.
Everyone starts at the main jail then folks who are eligible may go to this facility at Rountree. There are 64 beds. It provides, education, treatment and job readiness especially the latter. They focus on construction technology, hospitality and agriculture and landscape and people must enroll in at least one track or you can get your HS diploma. ESL is also offered as well as parenting, family reunification and domestic violence. CBT is the therapy of choice. The facility has 15 different classrooms as well as a yard! There are also classes in Spanish.
The prisoners also do laundry and landscaping. Computer programs are also there as well as spiritual support.
Sergeant Karen talked about the effect of training new officers to work in this minimum security setting. She said as a county we are leading the way in this new method or rehab and treatment. The facility is open for tours and our club will make arrangements soon to go and visit this innovative facility.
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