Approximately 2,000 community members expressed enthusiasm and mixed reactions to a public survey conducted by the Pima County Adult Detention Center Blue Ribbon Committee. The commission has spent the past year studying the need and feasibility of building a new county jail.
On January 31, the commission published a summary of its findings on its website, but did not publish individual comments obtained by Arizona Luminaria through a public records request. Overall, public reaction was mixed, with some wanting new prisons and others on both sides of the aisle.
The majority of respondents said current prison conditions were inadequate, but several also said they did not want taxes to go up to pay for new prisons.
“Renovate old prisons and add new features for health care, mental health, and drug detox,” one respondent wrote.
Another respondent said: “I do not support new facilities. Our community needs funding in other areas as well.”
Another said, “The county needs to prioritize jailing criminals and keeping residents safe. If we need a new jail, let's do it.”
“The biggest takeaway from this survey is that 70% of those surveyed said something needs to be done,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos wrote in a Feb. 2 statement to Arizona Luminaria. wrote in an email. “Seventy percent recognize that what we have is not safe and does not work. From the beginning…I have always said that the safest facility for both inmates and staff is Is required.”
The online survey was conducted for 19 days, from the day after Christmas until January 13, and was the last opportunity for community members to provide input to the committee. On January 31, just over two weeks after the investigation concluded, the commission submitted its final, more than 300-page report to Pima County Executive Jean Lescher.
One survey respondent suggested, “Please build tents for the prisoners. Soldiers in the military have to sleep in tents, so why not let prisoners sleep in tents too?”
Another said: “I worked in prisons from 1987 to 2011 and saw how overcrowded and crumbling prisons were. Prisons had been understaffed for years. ”
Opponents of new prisons wrote, “What will happen to the crumbling infrastructure elsewhere?” Minimal public transportation? Health department underfunded? Is the homeless problem becoming more serious? That money and land could be used for low-income housing, emergency housing, better bus routes, and building communities where people don't have to turn to crime. Never leave it like this! ”
The comments come as prisons have come under increased scrutiny in recent years. At least eight people died in the Pima County Jail in 2023. At least 10 more people died within 30 days of being released from prison last year. Prisoners and former staff have consistently denounced inadequate and delayed medical care. The county pays Nafcare, an Alabama-based for-profit health care provider, about $1.2 million a month for prison medical care.
County and sheriff's department officials, as well as critical members of the public, acknowledge that it is becoming increasingly difficult to lock up people suffering from mental health and addiction disorders.Reports of deaths and abuse in custody The number of cases is rapidly increasing in prisons across the country.. Solutions being proposed and attempted range from decriminalizing certain drugs to reduce prison populations, cracking down on homelessness and drug abuse, and building new, larger prison facilities.
The latter is the strategy proposed by Sheriff Nanos, who urged the Board of Supervisors to: Funding new prisons through sales tax Appearing before supervisors that month, Nanos said of the prison, citing crumbling buildings and poor design. work. It's a terrible working environment. ”
The following month, Pima County Executive Jean Lescher called for the creation of a commission to consider building a new jail in Pima County. January 11, 2023 Memo. The Committee began meeting in March 2023.
The commission held all seven meetings in public, but the first three were sparsely attended except for commission members and county staff. One of the meetings in August was canceled within minutes after local residents voiced their opposition to the new prison and entered the meeting with music playing.
After nearly a year of work, the committee released the full report to the media on Monday, February 5, but blocked its publication until February 6, when Mr. Rescher formally submits his report to the Audit Committee. .
according to Initial findings report The commission, released to the public in December, estimated that renovations would cost $623 million and an entirely new prison could cost up to $858 million.
Investigation result
The overwhelming majority of survey respondents have lived in Pima County for more than 10 years, with 86% of respondents identifying as white and approximately 23% of respondents identifying as Latino. The population of people held in prisons is 44% Latino and 16% black. According to statistics for 2022. Only 3% of survey respondents identified as black.
Approximately 65% of respondents work in prisons, previously worked in prisons, or worked in law enforcement. Just under 30% of respondents have a family member who has spent at least one day in jail.
More than 53% of respondents said they learned about prison conditions from local media. More than 21% said they learned about prison conditions because they work in, are incarcerated in, or frequently visit prisons. He combines three very different perspectives on prison into one answer.
The survey did not include a yes/no question about whether the county should build a new jail. Instead, the central question was, “If the Board of Supervisors determines that improvements to adult detention facilities are needed, which of the following would you most support?”
Respondents were given eight options to choose from. Construction of a new prison. Renovation of existing prisons. A combination of new construction and renovation. “Appropriately size the facility to match the projected population.” Improving medical, mental health and detox facilities. Modernize current facilities to improve living standards and provide more services and programs. Support varies by cost. “We do not support new construction or improvements” that do not fall into any of the above categories.
A minority of 18.8% of respondents supported the construction of new facilities. On the other hand, 18.02% responded that they did not support new construction or improvements to current facilities.
limited options
Wanda Bertram, a spokeswoman for the Prison Policy Initiative, a nonpartisan group that studies prisons and detention centers, said the committee's framing of the questions “is not in a way that would make people think we need new prisons.” It's a thing,” he said.
Mia Burcham, organizer No deaths in prisonA Tucson-based organization founded by people who have lost family members in prison has a similar response. “This survey consists of entirely leading questions designed to make respondents believe that their only options are a prison expansion or an entirely new prison,” Burcham said.
“We know that prison is not the answer to any of the problems the inquiry identifies,” Burcham continued. “And, as the county commissioner himself acknowledged in a recent evaluation of prison health care providers, care cannot be provided in a prison environment.”
Research means listening to respondent feedback. But Bartram said recent experience watching other counties build new jails in different parts of the country shows that that doesn't necessarily happen. “The design firm will apply for the contract and will offer ready-made blueprints as an option,” Bertram said.
Perhaps it comes down to a simple question of cost, she says.
Mr Bertram suggested that issues related to prisons could be: better resolved through Invest in more community services These include community health care, expanding affordable housing, improving education, after-school and summer programs for children, and services for domestic violence survivors.
“It's telling that Pima County put together this commission instead of studying social issues in the community,” Bertram said. “Too many counties will look at overcrowded or crumbling jails and think the answer is a new facility.”
Arizona Luminaria reached out to Pima County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Adelita Grijalva to ask her thoughts on the investigation and the Blue Ribbon Commission's final report. On Friday, Feb. 2, she wrote in her email that she had not had a chance to review all of the survey responses or the final report that she had just received.
However, Mr. Grijalva said he appreciated the following statement included in the summary of the final report: Isolation without taking into account the co-existing social issues surrounding incarceration may not completely solve the problem and will need to be addressed in a more global manner through future community-wide efforts. . ”
“This is a broader initiative in collaboration with nonprofit partners, advocacy groups, and cities and local governments to develop a comprehensive plan to address prevention, intervention, and diversion services to reduce prison populations. We believe this is a step forward in having a community-wide discussion.”
Exorbitant cost?
Even though a majority of respondents said they supported new prisons, more than 42% of respondents also said they did not support new taxes to pay for prisons.
Sheriff Nanos responded to Arizona Luminaria via email on February 2nd, writing: “I believe costs can still come down…it depends on what we build.” He said more open living spaces instead of one- or two-person cells He noted that the vision for the prison would help defer costs.
“Design teams need to consider what currently exists before deciding what to build,” Nanos wrote.
But Burcham and others questioned whether new, larger facilities were the answer, given the current state of malfunctioning prisons.
Mr Burcham said: “The committee can try to derive consent for the proposal from thousands of survey responses and a few key questions, but it cannot actually reproduce the support for this disastrous project.'' It's going to be much more difficult.”
With mixed responses to the survey and a final report from the commission in hand, it will be up to county supervisors to decide next steps. The board is scheduled to discuss the committee's final report at its Feb. 20 meeting.
