Safety and Justice Challenge Community Collaborative
Pima County’s Safety and Justice Challenge has formed a Community Collaborative to help implement the reforms developed as part of a $1.5 million grant award.
The group is composed of justice system partners and community representatives, including formerly incarcerated men and women, victim advocates, tribal members, and clergy. Members meet regularly to review data and propose adjustments to the strategies of the Pima County Safety and Justice Challenge as needed.
About Pima County’s Strategies:
In April 2016, the County received $1.5 million from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to help implement strategies like expanded risk screening for all misdemeanor defendants to increase post-booking releases from jail; adding substance abuse and mental health screening before the initial court appearance to provide the judge safe options for release to treatment instead of jail; enhancing automated call, text and email court-date reminder systems that can reduce failure to appear rates; and special weekend warrant resolution courts.
When Pima County implemented the Safety and Justice Challenge strategies about 80 percent of jail inmates were in pretrial status. Warrants for failure to appear in court (93 percent of which related to underlying misdemeanor charges), misdemeanor charges like shoplifting and DUIs, and lower-level felony charges (such as possession/use of a dangerous or narcotic drug, possession of drug paraphernalia and aggravated criminal damage) were the main drivers of the pretrial jail population.
For more information, contact Doyle Morrison or call him at 520-724-2465.
Upcoming meetings and events
Hosted by the Department of Justice Services
| Dates: |
Every second Thursday of the month
|
| Time: |
2:00 to 3:30 p.m. Virtually unless otherwise noted
|
| How to participate: |
Call Pima County Justice Services at 520-724-9933 or email Justice.Services@pima.gov |
Justice Services
201 N. Stone Ave.
Second Floor
Tucson, AZ 85701
520-724-9933
Justice.Services@pima.gov
