I am writing for my wife who is currently in CCWF. She is trying to get to a facility nearer to home and she has told me about the Restitution Center in L.A. but for some reason I can't seem to locate it. Can anyone who has been there or has a loved one there please respond back to me and give me a hand with this. I feel like I am letting her down. She has a great deal of restitution and would like to go to work to pay it off. The program she is telling me about is one where the inmates are allowed to leave the facility each day and go to employment outside of the facility. Your help will be greatly appreciated.

I have provided you with two links to data regarding the Restitution Center below. The first link is the original memo from CDC establishing the Criteria for the program. That criteria has undergone some revision but these are the basic essentials. The other following link is a supplemental data link that you may find of interest.

Basically, this is a very unique and diffiuclt to gain entry into program. The address is located in the first link. It is located in not the greatest of neighborhoods but it is a very unrestrictive program when compared to a traditional prison. "Residents" as they are called do leave and go into the community and return.

I must caution you that any inmate applying must be a minimum custody inmate with little or no violence in the background, no escape history, no serious medical conditions or mental health issues and essentially no other issues that might pose a danger to the surrounding community. Most of the information comes directly from Internet sources that are readily available to all. You loved one must make application for this program through the assigned correctional counselor. Entry to this program is extremely restrictive so please don't get your hopes up to much. However, you should go for it if you qualify! Here are the links:

http://www.corr.ca.gov/regulationspolicies/PDF/ABs/1996ABs/96-07%20Restitution%20Center%20Eligibility%20Criteria .pdf

http://www.boc.ca.gov/PubsRRHAD/CDCprocess.pdf

Hi Kady's guy! I do not know if you remember me but I spoke to your wife about the Restitution Center. YOu will not find any public information about such a center as the CDC has closed the facilty for Woman. The only Restitution program is run by a non-profit org. in downtown LA and is very strict. (Most parole agents do not even know abotu this program) It is a 60 bed facility and basically it's a coin toss for who gets in.

From my knowledge, you can not apply for it. You have to be recommended by your councelor and screened for it. Try having her ask the councelor about the program. I hope this information helps! Feel free to ask me any questions!

Ok, let's add some accurate clarity here. It is not true that there is "no public information" on the restitution center. There indeed is and I have provided it in the link below. While there isn't a lot, it does exist. You will see that it is straight from CDC's own web site and the information is current as the date in the upper right hand corner will reflect! The bottom of the page announces the continuing existence of the restitution center project. Additionally, clear reference to "his or her paycheck" is made within that paragraph, which further clearly indicates the existence of females.

Here is that link:
http://www.corr.ca.gov/communicationsoffice/publicsafetyps/plannedreentry.asp (http://www.corr.ca.gov/communicationsoffice/publicsafetyps/plannedreentry.asp)



Additionally, I have provided you with another updated document (also obtained publicly from a simple Google Search) that the female restitution center is located on 18th street in Los Angeles, CA.

Additionally, Penal Code 6220 clearly establishes that there will be a restitution center and it makes reference to both males and females being a part of that program. The Penal Code also clearly indicates that it can be a "privately run facility" or a joint venture, and that is exactly what the department has been using for quite some time!

It has to, as it would be not only a state but a federal crime to engage in gender discrimination on this issue. The Department of Corrections Departmental Manual establishes the Restitution Center without bias towards gender. That Manual is governed by the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) which compels the Department to abide by that manual as it is state law and state law prohibts such gender discrimination.

If somebody in CDC has indeed banned females from participation in this program then clearly someone is very asleep at the wheel again and this is ripe for a major law suit. However, I sincerely doubt this has occured.

CDC cannot legally establish a system of restitution for only the male gender just as it could not establish a camp system exclusive to males only. There are female campers and firefighter for just this same reason.

I have no idea what someone in CDC has put out regarding the banning of females into a restitution center and I have no idea who put that information out. However, whoever did has no idea what they were talking about and within the CDC structure that could literally be just about any of them! Trust me.

In fact, I just called them myself tonight and they are and have been open and they have a building full of females as we speak!

Here is the link to the specific female restitution center.

http://www.corr.ca.gov/regulationspolicies/PDF/IBs/2001-IBs/01-15.pdf (http://www.corr.ca.gov/regulationspolicies/PDF/IBs/2001-IBs/01-15.pdf)

Wow Branda. Wish I had you to help my family find information when I was sent to the 18th Street Work Furlough. They closed Grand as you well know but the 18th Street Center is not Restitution, they housed a handful of Restitution but it was mainly work forlough while I was there last year. At the end of the year, I do believe they finally made it a restitution only center. Not sure though.

Hi,

Well, I am currently at the Restitution Center. The address is 1032 W. 18th St., Los Angeles, CA 90015. It is a 60 bed women's facility. There are currently no work furlough women there - only resitution. And the amount of resitution doesn't seem to matter. Women there owe from nothing but the $400 court fine to millions. I have been there 90 days and have seen some major changes in not only the type of woman, but the crimes they are serving time on. When I first arrived, most of the women were white collar criminals. Now, however, there are quite a few women doing time for drug related crimes. Don't get me wrong - it is way better than prison. We do get to go out into the community to go to the store as well as look for jobs. Our families can visit us every weekend and there are no bars on the windows (at least that you can see). Let me know if you want any more information.

Ah . . . I live breathing real resident !

Regarding the Restitution Center - I recently paroled from Work Furlough (8/9/04) In fact I was the last Work Furlough person in San Diego. When I was picked up from CRC by transportation another woman was picked up with me for transfer to the Resitution Center in LA. We went there first. Her reccomendation for the Center came from the sentencing judge. It had been for me too, but my orginal sentence was too long. The criteria is a sentence of not more than three years. This is total sentence (not after half time is applied) No history of violence, weapons, arson, etc. In other words ---- Level 1. Once you are endorsed you still have to stay on top of it. The lady on the bus with me had to be re-endorsed as they kept "mis-placing" her paperwork. Finally it took her family calling Sacramento. Now that Work Furlough has ended there are very few options left. Also, it seems that the Drug Treatment Furlough may be deemed a failure due to numerous problems.

:confused: Im sentenced to the restitution center from SLO ca I go to chowchilla first for processing I would like to know if good time is 50% there or ?? Also how do they apply your $ on books? Also visitation? how long dowes it take to get there? from chowchilla?

Sorry about your committment, but here is the info you requested. It takes approx. 3.5 hrs to get to chow from your area. Once there you may be in AD Seg for up to 8 weeks. Once done you will be placed in general pop. Any money sent to you will have restitution taken out of it approx. 45% very soon they will begin to take out 55%. The way to avoid this so that the state does not take the money your family sends you is to bring as much as you can spare with you. None of this money has restitution taken from it. You will not be allowed a contact visit until you are out of Ad Seg. Lay low and follow the rules, try to stay out of the fray as much as possible. You begin to get 50% after you get a job or start to program. Good luck

There is a procedure to get into a Restitution Center even after commencement of term. I know, I did it. I was sentenced in San Diego County and classified to do my time at Eagle Mountain CCF. A couple of months after I arrived at Eagle Mountain, I found out about the Restitution Center, which back then was on Grand Avenue in Los Angeles.

My attorney went back to the sentencing judge and had him enter a nominal restitution order (mine was a white collar property crime) and an order directing the CDC to transfer me to the Restitution Center. Both my attorney and I stayed on it, bothering members of the CDC including my counselor at Eagle Mountain who was friendly to the idea anyway, and within about 30 days I was on a van from Eagle Mountain to Chino, where I stayed for a week or two, and then transported to the Restitution Center. I was re-classified at the Rest. Center and continued my sentence there. I maintained my same release date.

To my knowledge, this had never happened before and there was certainly some resistance to the process within the CDC. However, the CA penal code (sec. 6227) provides that a judge may order a person to the Restitution Center. Typically this is not done by the judge so that an inmate is directed to the Rest. Center only at the discretion of the CDC during its own initial classification process. Or if it is done by the judge it is done at sentencing - my case was unusual.

So, there is a way to go to the Rest. Center, as I outlined above, even after classification. One must still qualify for the program, i.e. low level offender, 36 month or less term, no drug sales, no violence, no sex crimes, etc. (CA Penal Code sec. 6228). However, anything can happen with the CDC – when I was there one guy was in for a 60 month sentence (with half time), and another was in for a battery case not even getting half time. Another guy was there for statutory rape.

Caveat: When I was there the Restitution Center was very strict and people were being constantly "rolled up" and sent back to regular prison for the pettiest offenses. The threat of “I’m sending you back to Chino (or for the women, to Chowchilla)” was repeated so often it became routine.

To some extent it seemed clear that the CDC didn't appreciate the fact that we had forced them to transfer me to a work furlough like facility, and it appeared that I was targeted. For example, no matter what job I got, I was asked to get another one. This got old real fast. Actually, at the Rest. Center they more or less wanted people to all take the same telemarketing job at the same employer so that the lazy parole officers could make one visit a week to the same place to check on everyone at once.

People were written up for minor things like talking to female inmates when told not to do so, possessing something as petty as a Playboy magazine, asking one officer for something and getting a no then getting a yes from another, etc. Offenses I'm sure that would never have been written up in real prison.

Once anyone was rolled up and sent back to Chino or Chowchilla, he or she would no longer earn half time credits until re-classified to a new facility. As a result, all who were rolled up had their release dates sent back, in some cases weeks.

In short, the Restitution Center was not all it was cracked up to be. The C.O.s (corrections officers) there were mostly busybodies who loved to write people up, and loved even more to call up the van to transport us back to Chino.

It's a nice facility (like a f*cking hotel, as described in "Scarface"), and the perks of being on the street and free to get a job are good, but it is almost not worth the fact that no one leaves you alone to do your time in peace while there.