On behalf of the 1,600 ARC members throughout the state of California and thousands of our community members still incarcerated in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), we thank outgoing Secretary of Corrections Ralph Diaz for his service and devotion to rehabilitation of incarcerated people. 

We are grateful for Secretary Diaz’s commitment to reforming and improving the current correctional system. During his tenure, we have watched rehabilitative programming increase throughout the system and the number of people in custody decrease. His dedication to reforming our system has been demonstrated through the increase of programming led by formerly incarcerated people in various prisons and in his recent use of the 1170(d) provision, which allowed many of our community members to come home due to recall of their sentences

In welcoming the appointment of Kathleen Allison to CDCR Secretary, we look forward to her furthering Secretary Diaz’s commitment to rehabilitation and decreasing the number of people incarcerated in the state of California, so that all Californians, including those incarcerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, can feel safe and thrive.