Anti-Recidivism Coalition
| Formation | 2013 |
|---|---|
| Location | |
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Founder
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Scott Budnick |
| Website | Anti-Recidivism Coalition |
The Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) is a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization founded by Scott Budnick. ARC is a support network for formerly incarcerated individuals and advocates for criminal justice reform. ARC’s mission is to reduce incarceration, improve the outcomes of formerly incarcerated individuals, and to build healthier communities.
In 1997, Budnick first became interested in juveniles in prison after reading a Rolling Stone article about Brandon Hein and three other youths who were found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in California even though three of them never touched the weapon. Budnick sent the article to a producer who optioned it for a documentary film called Reckless Indifference.
In 2003, Budnick began volunteering at the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar, California. Budnick was a volunteer teacher for a group called InsideOUT Writers. As of 2014, Budnick still volunteers at the Nidorf Juvenile Hall. After this experience and others, Budnick began to tell administrators and politicians about the problems he was seeing in the juvenile justice and criminal justice systems. After the success of Budnick's The Hangover franchise, Budnick was able to leverage the work he does for incarcerated juveniles.Jake Gyllenhaal went with Budnick to the Sylmar juvenile detention center, to Men's Central Jail and out to California State Prison, Los Angeles County.
In 2012, Budnick was named California's Volunteer of Year by Governor Jerry Brown for a program he envisioned. After seeing kids desperate to change their lives but unable to because of California law at that time, Budnick and other launched a pilot program out of Los Angeles County where every single kid coming into the prison system—if they are doing the right things on their own—got to go to a place where they could get their high school diploma or GED, go to college classes, learn a trade, and be in self-help programs and substance-abuse programs. In 2013, the program was adopted statewide.
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