TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) – The Pima County Board of Supervisors yesterday agreed to postpone a decision on the future of the Pima County Jail.

The Blue Ribbon Commission, established in early 2023, recently released a 300-page report detailing poor internal conditions.

The committee reached five possible conclusions, but found three to be “unfeasible”, leaving only two possible proposals to amend the conditions.

1. Spend $650 million on prison repairs to fix existing problems and build new housing units.
2. Spend about $850 million to build an entirely new prison.

The Supervisory Board decided to pass both proposals, ignoring the proverbial lead up to the March 5 meeting.

County Executive Jean Lescher presented three recommendations to the commission based on the Blue Ribbon Commission's findings.

1. Contract with a third-party consultant to assess prison conditions and make recommendations
2. Establish a new committee to make alternative recommendations for improvement.
3. Establish a county finance working group.

Lescher said he plans to return to the Supervisory Board's hearing room in March with the committee's charter on possible improvements and a list of potential consultants.

District 4 Superintendent Steve Christie, the only supervisor to vote against the committee list, acknowledged the work of the committee members but questioned why they were unable to find a solution or the two recommendations. I wondered why he couldn't decide between the two.

“Even though we have been working with the Blue Ribbon Commission so far, we have spent all of our time, effort and energy trying to find some kind of solution to address the prison situation,” he said. “They didn't.”

He asked why there wasn't a third-party consultant in place from the beginning. He also asked why he did not set up a finance group and additional committees in the first place.

Some voters in the crowd were relieved by the postponement. Volunteers and representatives from the No New Jails Coalition, American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, and Just Communities of Arizona spoke during the “Call to Action” section of the board meeting.

Volunteer Community Organizer Liz Casey has over eight years of social work experience. She said the money that would have been spent on construction should be donated to local social services.

“We need to focus on investing in community care and prevention to address the root causes of crime so we don't have to put people in prison in the first place,” she said.

Caroline Isaacs, executive director of Arizona Just Communities, said the organization is “dedicated to finding community-based alternatives to all forms of punishment.”

She identified two issues that the Blue Ribbon Commission focused on: deficiencies in prison infrastructure and a lack of beds.

“The solution to all of these problems is to reduce the prison population,” she says. “We're putting people in prison that don't need to be there. It's not for the people of this community, it's not for their families, it's not for any correctional purposes.”