People released from the Pima County jail leave the building through an unmarked steel door painted the same mud-orange color as the surrounding concrete block wall. After walking through that door, they can follow the blue line painted on the sidewalk, walk another 50 feet or so east on Silverlake Road, and then, where the blue line ends, hang a left at the modular trailer and ring the doorbell.
The trailer houses Pima County’s Transition Center, which has been operating since June 2023, offering basic services — food, phone charging, sometimes free phones, hygiene kits — as well as connections to outside service providers such as emergency housing and mental health treatment centers.
“How do you qualify?” asked Justice Services Director Kate Vesely. “You walk through the door. There are no barriers, we serve everybody, and we’re designed to be quick.”
Connecting people leaving the jail with basic services, checking up on them after a few days, giving them basic items after they leave jail and before they’re back in the community, can make a huge difference in keeping people out of trouble, Vesely says. It can also save a lot of money.
According to a Nov. 7 county memo and the first annual report about the transition center, more than 1,100 people used the transition center in its first year of operation. Among those who relied on services from the center, rearrests were down to less than 10%, compared to a 27% rate among people leaving the jail who did not pass through the center.
According to the report, the drop in recidivism is saving cities and towns in Pima County approximately $80,000 per month.
“It’s my very first time accepting this type of help and the way they came at me and gave me to overcome my struggle I swear I got this beautiful feeling like I got a new set of friends I can really trust,” wrote Natalia, who passed through the transition center, in a thank you note to her peer navigators. The note was included in the annual report.
The county estimates the drop in rearrests has saved taxpayers about $940,000 since the center opened.
The transition center is funded by federal dollars from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, the nearly $2 trillion stimulus fund. According to Vesely, the transition center’s total annual budget is about $950,000.
That funding runs out next June, and county officials will have to find a new source, possibly the county general fund, to keep the transition center operating. The county’s approximately $1.5 billion budget pays for a variety of government services, including funding the sheriff’s department, the health department, parks and recreation, libraries and road repair. But even as continued funding is in question, the county is seeking to expand the center’s operations, keeping it open 24/7.
Deputy County Administrator Steve Holmes said the current priority for the center is sustainability.
“We have to look really closely at funding mechanisms,” Holmes said during a Nov. 12 board of supervisors meeting.
“It’s a successful program that’s worth keeping and worth growing,” Holmes later told Arizona Luminaria.
Currently, the center is open from 8 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Friday.
“We’ve been there”
During a tour of the center, Vesely said their goal is to “disrupt the cycle of incarceration and get people to court.”
“We’re here to be a conduit,” Vesely said, explaining that while they do offer food or clothing, the main focus is to connect people leaving the jail with what they need on the outside.
“What serves community safety best, what serves personal stability?” Vesely said.
Often, it’s help finding a place to spend the night and a checkup phone call to remind people of future court dates.
“From purely a community safety aspect, we are actively making the community safer by giving them these resources,” Vesely said.
One of the key ways the center builds trust and connects with people leaving the jail is through the use of peer navigators, people working in the center who have direct experience in the jail or in prison, and may have personally dealt with mental health or substance use disorders.
Kris Mendoza and Rosa Lamadrid are two of those peer navigators.
One of the basic things they do is “make sure everybody is fed,” Mendoza said.
After that: “It’s your plan. How can I assist you,” Lamadrid said.
“We’ll just sit and talk with them,” she said, stressing the importance of being a friendly, non-threatening face as people are going through what is often a traumatic experience.
They both said that their own life experience is invaluable in connecting with the people they are helping. “We are you,” Lamadrid said of sitting down and talking with people released from the jail. “We’ve been there.”
Mendoza added, “I can see what they’re going through.”
But sometimes, despite the center and the navigators and willing participants, resources are still lacking.
“One of the biggest barriers is housing,” Mendoza said. She said that most of the time people who need emergency housing can find it, but there’s still a need for more options in the community.
“People need shelter,” Mendoza said, “and we can usually find it, but not always.”
Cited and released
Behind the transition center and on the other side of the razor-wire topping the high fence that forms the perimeter of the jail complex is the Pretrial Services Screening Annex, which opened in 2019 specifically to try and reduce the daily jail population. It is run by the county’s pretrial services division.
People who are charged with misdemeanors (as long as they’re not domestic violence) are eligible to be cited and released instead of booked into jail. In 2017 the jail population was about 20% people facing misdemeanors, according to the report. Now it’s down to 5%.
On Nov. 18, 1,729 people were locked up in the jail, according to a public dashboard managed by the Pima County Attorney’s Office.
About 500-600 people go through the annex every month. Vesely said about half are released, meaning they’re never booked into the jail, saving the city $495 on the booking fee. That amounts to a huge cost savings for the city of Tucson, as high as $125,000 per month.
Together, with the work of the transition center annex, the center’s annual report estimates the two projects are saving the community about $2.7 million annually.
But just because those people pass through the annex and avoid spending the night in jail, doesn’t mean they’re in the clear. They often still need help, and need to make a plan for showing up to their court date. That’s why almost all of the people leaving the annex are directed straight to the transition center.
One man who had just been released from the jail was talking to Mendoza in her office on Nov. 15. As Vesely passed by, the man stopped her to say thanks.
The man was sitting in a chair with a bag of his property on his lap, a stack of jail release paperwork in his hand, and laceless shoes on his feet. Vesely asked him if he was doing all right.
“Yes,” he replied enthusiastically. “The rest of my life is trying to stay in recovery, and I need people like y’all.”
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