The Santa Clara County Office of Diversion and Reentry Services presented a study-session update on Nov. 13 summarizing services across the reentry continuum and outcomes funded by AB109.

Javier Aguirre and Chad Martins said the county's two reentry centers (Gilroy and San Jose) recorded nearly 33,000 service interactions during the reporting period, with about 24,000 visits reported in one fiscal-year snapshot and substantial use of the Mission City Recovery Station and sheriff-run work programs. "So over close to 33,000 individuals, access services at the 2 reentry centers," Javier Aguirre said.

Presenters emphasized the behavioral-health and employment needs of the justice-involved population: about 7 in 10 people screened at booking receive mental-health consultations, nearly half of people housed in custody are prescribed psychiatric medication and almost a third have serious mental-illness diagnoses. The reentry report credited AB109-funded contractors with helping more than 5,000 admissions to treatment and reported that 57% of those discharges were successful (treatment completion or satisfactory exit).

Program-level outcomes included employment programs that enrolled more than 1,000 participants and placed nearly 500 people; supportive housing placements for 48 households through rapid-reentry rehousing; the public defender's expungement program accepted 1,700 clients and achieved a 91% clearance rate for petitions; and navigation programs showed employment rising from 12% at intake to 45% at exit.

Board members praised those results but asked the administration to adopt more nuanced outcome measures beyond simple counts and recidivism rates. Supervisors referenced a Council of State Governments framework to measure recidivism progression, employment and financial stability, housing security, health and well-being, and social reintegration. The board directed DRS and partners to integrate refined measures into contracts and return with an implementation plan by mid-2026 (earlier if possible) so the county can prioritize limited funding toward programs with demonstrable impact.

The committee voted to receive the reentry report and to ask that standardized outcome measures be developed and reported to the board.