Recidivism rates across the country have steadily increased. Recognizably, the majority of those incarcerated remain disproportionately people of color and/or those experiencing deep poverty. Nationwide, anti-recidivism interventions at all levels and in all forms have yet to mitigate this issue. However, rather than placing blame on the prison rehabilitation system or those previously charged with a crime, or who have subsequently been charge with new crimes, our team believed that what was lacking in many recidivism prevention program models was mutual understanding. As staunch advocates for fair and just programming, we believe we must give space to parolees to explain the cause and effect of their actions, but also what they feel will help them reach success after returning to their communities as they are directly affected by anti-recidivism policies. To remain fair, this opportunity is not lost on prison officials or the communities that house and support recently released inmates.

As social workers, we have an ethical obligation to honor all parties involved in our anti-recidivism efforts. In order to develop more inclusive programming our team argued for the use of participatory action research methods when developing new CDCR parolee programming. CRT-informed PAR invites research subjects to be active participants in determining research questions, approaches, and tactics, but also holds them accountable for action. Supported by experts, participant researchers are invited to share their unique expertise and counter-narratives seldom revealed or responded to by “top-down,” results-driven program developers. With this in mind, participant-driven recidivism-reduction programs may reduce recidivism rates better than current programming because they are more informed. Identifying where a parolee-lead research project would thrive best, our team examined the CDCR’s current “Roadmap to Rehabilitaion” (cdcr.ca.gov, 2019) structure and suggested the most viable platform to test our recidivism-reduction research approach.