The Pima County Adult Detention Center is “uninhabitable” for inmates, he told his supervisor. There is also a serious staffing shortage, which raises serious safety concerns, he continued. Nanos floated the idea of ​​building an entirely new facility, claiming the detention facility on the West Silverlake and South Mission roads was “irreparable.”

Since then, the board has been discussing deteriorating prison conditions, but the latest response is tasked with assessing the need for new detention centers and deciding how to pay for them. It was to approve the creation of the Blue Ribbon Commission.

In a 4-to-1 vote on Tuesday, the board approved the membership, charter and work schedule for the new prison board. The board gave her 180 days to a group of 10 members to report its findings in September.

County Administrator Jan Lesher recommended the formation of a commission to answer important questions. And what do I need to do (to deal with it)? ”

“The Sheriff was very clear about what he believed he needed a new prison … I understood if there was work that could be done in the current prison or if a new one would be better. I’m not an expert at doing that,” she said.

Commission members come from diverse backgrounds in law enforcement, criminal justice, construction, and social services. Her three vice-chairs within the group will lead efforts to assess the structural status of the facility, operations within the facility, and how potential changes will be financed.

“We need a new prison, how it comes about, and whether it’s brand new or refurbished, whatever,” Nanos said. We absolutely cannot put our staff in that situation.”

The detention facilities were primarily funded by voter-approved bond packages passed in 1997 and 2004. 2004 dollars funded security enhancements. Initial estimates put the new prison costing him about $250 million to $380 million.

Now Nanos claims the prison complex is “literally crumbling”, with frequent flooding, mold and deterioration of concrete. Some repairs were made, which sheriffs likened to “putting lipstick on a pig.”

A third-party contractor performed a structural assessment of specific problem areas on the site in June, July and October 2021. They found problems such as cracking masonry on the outside of the prison and delaminating concrete throughout walkways within the facility, but did not report a significant structural assessment. problem. According to the assessment, remediation of the identified issues was completed by the county’s facilities management department.

A full-scale, engineer-based assessment of the entire prison would be a much more time-consuming and more expensive process.

While investigating the physical condition of the prison, the new commission will also be tasked with reviewing the operation of the facility.

In recent years, Pima County Jail has seen an increasing number of inmates and a decreasing number of correctional officers supervising them.

According to Nanos, prison officers (COs) are dozing off at work and are tasked with overseeing multiple sections of the prison at once, forcing them to work overtime.

According to the Sheriff’s Department, prison CO vacancies are 68%, and in the past three months alone, the county has spent $1,266,703 in overtime in prisons.

After Nanos filed his concerns with an oversight board in December, the board granted his request to pay correctional workers $1.7 million a year to give them a 7.5% pay raise. Sheriffs said the raises help get people in the door but don’t address the ongoing need to retain staff.

Underscoring the need for reform in prisons is the growing number of inmates dying in prisons. The prison has seen its highest number of deaths in a decade after 2021 reported 10 of his deaths at the facility. According to the county, 12 deaths were reported in prisons in 2022.

Of these 12 deaths, five were related to fentanyl use, three were ruled to be suicides, and one was due to medical complications after an inmate consumed plastic spokes. and one was ruled a homicide after an inmate was repeatedly tasted during an altercation with a corrections officer, according to a report from the Pima County coroner’s office. Two inmates died in a nearby hospital after being granted compassionate release.

Corrections officers are supposed to regularly conduct rounds of prisoners at least every 15 minutes, but in practice prisoners are checked in about every 40 minutes, Mr Nanos said. rice field.

“They’re locked up in a little room, and we walk past and look into a tiny little window about four inches wide and two feet high. I think there is. And we will pass by, ”said Nanos. “How safe and secure is it?”

According to the sheriff, inmates are given “probably an hour or two” each day in a common day room outside their cells.

Also, although prisons have a capacity of about 2,100 people, the actual population that prisons can effectively accommodate is much smaller, and each inmate must be classified based on the alleged crime. The population has hovered around 1,800 for the past four months.

“The reality is that 90% of the people in our prisons are still innocent and have not been tried,” Nanos said. “I don’t think our prisons today are designed for any kind of compassion or dignity. It’s almost punitive.”

Sheriffs have expressed concern that the alarming lack of police officers overseeing the prison population could lead to further deaths and violent outbreaks.

Nanos said the prison had already “faced a very dangerous situation,” with 90 inmates refusing lockdown in their cells until hour-long negotiations exacerbated the situation. On December 1, an inmate choked a prison officer and left her unconscious for 24 minutes until medical personnel resuscitated her, sheriffs said.

One of the Blue Ribbon Commission’s responsibilities is to evaluate “best practices and standards and other factors affecting operations, given changes in the industry since the county facility was constructed.”

According to Lesher, this “could be an opportunity to develop a more modern prison or detention facility, where the term ‘new’ stands for enhanced programming and/or operational efficiency.” ”

The commission will be led by Daniel Sharp, who served as Oro Valley Police Chief for 20 years until retiring in 2020. He heard Nanos’ concerns about the prison, but said he would work “with an open mind” to lead the committee.

An exact timeline for the commission’s meetings has yet to be determined, but Sharp said the group will consider public opinion and use the knowledge of county officials to determine the fate of, and ultimately change, the prison. said it would make recommendations on how to fund the .

“I have always believed that public money belongs to the public, so we need to spend it wisely and make sure we are doing the right thing.

When Nanos addressed the board in December, he urged county supervisors to consider supporting the prison district sales tax, which Lesher considered as a possible funding option.

Eight of Arizona’s 15 counties impose some form of tax to fund prisons, but such taxes require voter approval. If Pima County approves the prison tax, the sales tax for residents, non-residents, and visitors to the area will be capped at her quarter cent.

Ultimately, the committee will consider all potential funding options for making changes to the prison and make recommendations to Lesher, who will pass the recommendations to the Board for approval.

“When I talk about new prisons, new is not just new, like we just built it. There’s a way, there’s a new way to approach that service,” Lesher said.