TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — There are solutions to safety on the Loop that reach beyond more law enforcement and more arrests. Pima County has a program that works to help people who get out of jail—never come back.
When it comes to crime on the Loop or any sort of street crime, sometimes you’ll hear people say, “Why not just lock them up? But minor offenders don't stay in jail forever so what then? Part of the answer is at the Pima County Transition Center.
The Center is in the shadow of the County Jail where it works to lift the shadow of the forces that can send a low level offender back to jail, or back into the troubled environment that can make them a danger to other people and to themselves.
As people get released from jail, someone from the Transition Center is there to greet and offer them help. Doyle Morrison is the Center’s outreach director. He says those Navigators have steered through some of the same rough seas of substance abuse, mental health troubles and living on the streets.
“So when you have individuals that have no authority over anybody, they're not probation, they're not parole, they're not law enforcement who says, ‘Hey, look, I have no authority over you. I've been in your shoes. I was you five years ago, I was you 10 years ago. Let me help you.’ Come alongside those individuals it's a totally different conversation. It's a totally different relationship, because they see somebody who understands and has been in their shoes, and sees them for who they are, and it offers them hope.”
People just out of jail, or anyone who needs the Center’s help, learn instead of returning to the streets or the washes, they can choose to get a safe place to stay and treatment for substance abuse or mental health challenges.
In the two years since the Transition Center opened it’s helped about three thousand people.
The Center says of those about seven percent were back in jail within 30 days of release, compared to 28 percent who did not accept help from the Center.
The Tucson Crime Free Coalition urged Pima County to open the Transition Center.
Josh Jacobsen of the Coalition says there are people hardened to life on the streets who resist services that could help them break cycles of addiction and crime. He says jail is the best place for them but others step out of jail, primed to make a change.
“You know, sometimes they're scared, sometimes they're really starting to rethink, do I want to keep going down this path? It's the best time to connect with them and to direct them into the appropriate treatment areas so that we can break, we can disrupt this cycle of addiction that's going on on our streets, because that's what it is.”
Now Pima County is thinking of expanding the Center’s hours from weekday only to offering help seven days a week as late as midnight to build onto the Transition Center’s success.
