Second Chances: Inmate Reentry

The criminal justice system in Arizona has made dramatic changes in the way inmates are treated as they reenter society.

When Governor Doug Ducey set out to reduce recidivism in Arizona, he tasked the Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES) and Arizona Department of Corrections (DOC) to collaborate and bring comprehensive support services to inmates nearing release who were most likely to recidivate. In March 2017, the state’s first Second Chance Centers (SCC) opened to provide inmates with a 10-week program designed to prepare them for reentry in our communities and workforce. Since the program’s inception, more than 1,000 inmates benefitted from ARIZONA @ WORK employment readiness services, resulting in 835 job placements, and almost all have connected to state and community resources for housing and transportation assistance, healthcare, and more.

Several local facilities and organizations have been set up in Yuma as a result of Gov. Ducey’s initiative.

The North End Community Connections clinic was launched last year, which was a first-of-its-kind medical clinic housed in the same building as adult probations.

Officials who spearheaded this project stress the importance of having a medical clinic and probations office in close proximity.

“What we saw when someone was released from jail, when they ended up in the community and they ended up back in the neighborhood, some of that negative behavior started right away as soon as they got out of jail and we didn’t have the opportunity to capture them that crucial point when they were being released when they’re having thoughts of changing behaviors and change their lives,” says Deputy Chief of Adult Probations Mike Byrd, who was one of the people who spearheaded the construction of this facility.

For people who served time in the past, they say these second chance centers gave them new hope to start making a living without getting in legal trouble.

“I was able to see people at rehab, they were people that been to prison, I was like how did you guys get a job here, they were like well they hire people like us so we can show by example that everyone can change,” says Jesus Esquerra, a manager at The Living Center Recovery and served time in the past.

According to AZ Corrections, 42,000 men and women are incarceration in the state of Arizona, 1,600 of them are released every month, and 92% of them stay in Arizona upon released. 38% of those released return back to prison on new criminal charges.

Another factor helping these inmates say helped them recover as they are released is faith in a higher power.

Daniel Denny who is one of Jehovah’s Witnesses takes part in a global volunteer work that visits incarcerated ones in prisons and gives them encouraging literature based on the bible. The literature is translated into over 900 languages and is designed to reach people of all ethnicities.

“People coming from all over the world, going into the detention center, fortunately, our organization has over 900 languages so we can provide for them written material in their language and also DVD’s with information that is encouraging and hopeful for them.”

More programs and facilities throughout the state are working to initiate more of these Second Chance centers, some of them funded by the federal government.