Napa probationers given chance at new beginning

Nine participants of the BI Napa Community Corrections Service Center recently graduated from the intensive reentry program and were honored in a transition celebration featured in the Napa Valley Register.

“With the help from BI, my life now has purpose and meaning,” one participant told the paper. The man said methamphetamine and stupid behavior left him with lost jobs, poor health, and bad family relationships. Now at 55, he says he has a new start.

Another participant told the paper the program showed her how to cope with her emotions and anxieties without turning to drugs or hurting herself.

The program is for probationers at risk of recidivating and offers evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy designed to change criminal behavior, drug education, employment readiness training and life skills courses.

Napa CCSC opened six years ago and currently services 48 probationers, while another 49 check in one to three times a week for a pretrial release program. An estimated 75 percent of its graduates have not been arrested again after completing the program.

The center is one of more than a dozen operated by GEO Reentry Services in California.

Read more about GEO Reentry’s approach to non-residential reentry.