New partnership adds 25 treatment beds, long-term support as county targets repeat offenders whose crimes are tied to substance use and mental health needs
Sacramento County officials announced a new partnership Wednesday aimed at breaking the cycle of repeated arrests involving chronic offenders by combining criminal accountability with structured substance use and mental health treatment.
Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho joined county Supervisors Rich Desmond, Pat Hume and Rosario Rodriguez, along with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office and leaders from Sacramento County Behavioral Health Services and Monarch Recovery Center, to announce what officials described as a first-of-its-kind partnership supporting the county’s CORE, or Chronic Offender Rehabilitation Effort, program.
Ho said the partnership is designed to ensure chronic offenders have access to meaningful treatment while maintaining accountability for repeated criminal behavior.
“This program ensures chronic offenders can access meaningful in-patient substance use and mental health treatment and helps fulfill the promise of Prop 36 — balancing accountability with treatment to create safer, healthier communities,” Ho said in announcing the partnership Wednesday.
CORE is a specialized community prosecution program led by the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office that focuses on repeat offenders whose continuing criminal activity has a significant impact on public safety and quality of life. Instead of relying solely on repeated arrests and incarceration, the program seeks to address factors contributing to chronic criminal behavior, including substance use, mental health conditions and housing instability.
The new partnership adds a significant treatment component to that effort. Monarch Recovery Center has committed 25 beds for qualifying participants, along with continued support for up to one year.
To qualify for CORE, an individual must have accumulated at least 10 arrests, citations or bench warrants within a one-year period. The threshold is intended to focus resources on a relatively small group of offenders who repeatedly cycle through the criminal justice system.
The program brings together prosecutors, law enforcement, behavioral health providers and treatment organizations in an effort to intervene in that cycle. When substance use is contributing to an individual’s criminal behavior, qualifying participants may be placed in a sober living environment and connected with treatment, public benefits and other services.
Participation comes with requirements. Individuals must remain engaged in treatment, appear in court, follow program conditions and remain crime-free.
Rodriguez shared how the repeated offenses committed by the population targeted through CORE can have a substantial cumulative impact on businesses and neighborhoods, even when individual crimes are considered relatively minor.
“Their offenses may be labeled ‘low-level,’ but their impact is anything but low-level,” Rodriguez shared socially. “Small businesses face repeated theft, trespassing, property damage, and threatening behavior. Residents see parks, sidewalks, and shopping centers become places they no longer feel safe.”
Rodriguez said the program is intended to provide an alternative to repeatedly arresting and releasing the same offenders without addressing the circumstances contributing to their behavior.
“Law enforcement officers are doing their jobs, but repeatedly arresting and releasing the same individuals simply resets the cycle,” she said.
The commitment from Monarch Recovery Center gives participating offenders a structured setting in which treatment can continue beyond an initial intervention. The organization’s commitment of 25 beds and support lasting as long as one year is intended to provide participants time to work toward stability while remaining accountable to the criminal justice system.
CORE involves the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, local law enforcement, the Public Defender’s Office and Sacramento County behavioral health and alcohol and drug services, with Monarch adding residential recovery resources to the partnership announced Wednesday.
The initiative also comes as Sacramento County implements changes associated with Proposition 36, approved by California voters in 2024. The measure increased penalties for certain repeat theft and drug crimes while creating treatment pathways in qualifying drug-related cases.
Ho characterized the CORE partnership as an effort to put that combination of accountability and treatment into practice, providing services for chronic offenders whose criminal behavior is connected to substance use or mental health needs while retaining consequences within the justice system.
Rodriguez said participation ultimately requires a willingness by offenders to accept the assistance being offered.
“We will offer help, but it must be accepted,” Rodriguez said. “When someone refuses that opportunity and continues harming the community, there must be consequences.”
The county’s goal is to reduce repeat criminal activity while also reducing the number of times the same individuals move through the arrest-and-release process without meaningful intervention.
“Real compassion requires intervention. Public safety requires accountability. CORE provides both,” Rodriguez said.
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