PAAR Center to house recently-released offenders

The Tulare County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will consider striking a $150,000 agreement with the PAAR Center in Porterville to temporarily house offenders recently released from state prison and provide them with a range of inpatient services.  

The matter is on the board’s consent agenda – items not typically pulled for separate discussion unless requested by a supervisor or a citizen.

The offenders are described as low-level state prison post-release offenders, low-level non-violent, non-serious and non-registerable sex offenders, and violators of parole who will not return to state prison under the provisions of AB109. The 2011 realignment legislation, signed into law on April 4, 2011, transferred responsibility of lower-level inmates and parolees from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to counties.

The lower-level inmates and parolees have been coming through the PAAR Center – a nonprofit designed to assist those struggling with alcohol and drug addiction to transform their lives — since September 2012 under a professional services agreement between the Tulare County Probation Department and the local rehab center. The matter is now coming before supervisors because the department wants to secure a greater amount of funds to continue with the services, said probation division manager Jose Gonzales.

“The professional services agreement between the department and the provider started in August, and it got to the point that we need to secure more funds to continue with services for the remainder of the fiscal year,” Gonzales said.

He said the crimes committed by the offenders vary; from past priors to a history of violations of parole, theft or residential burglary. Their primary needs, he said, are services for substance abuse issues.  

Offenders who arrive at the PAAR Center, located on Belleview Avenue, can stay anywhere from 60 to 90 days, and their stay can be extended if they need continued services before they are released to reconnect with family or live independently, Gonzales said.

Costs also vary as they depend on the services that they are receiving. Services include individual and group counseling, anger management classes, community-based supportive services, food and shelter, educational classes, domestic violence classes, medication awareness groups, social recreational activities and substance-abuse treatment.

While there are 63 beds between the men’s and women’s facilities, on average, between 10 and 15 offenders will stay at the facilities. That number varies throughout the month, Gonzales said.

The offenders are being housed in Porterville because many of them used to reside in the area, Gonzales said. The PAAR Center is also the only facility in the Porterville area that provides quality case management treatment, supervision, and in-house services to residents, a report prepared by county staff states.

A second facility similar to the PAAR Center, Turning Point of Central California in Visalia,  also houses recently-released offenders. There are other smaller, six-bed homes used for inpatient treatment programs that are at several other locations, Gonzales said.

This and other matters will be discussed at the board’s regular meeting to take place at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the county administration building, 2800 West Burrel Ave. in Visalia.

Contact Denise Madrid at 784-5000, ext. 1047. Follow her on Twitter @DeniseMadrid_.