Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey scraps plan for Tent City re-entry center
Dec 29, 2017, 3:31 PM | Updated: Jan 2, 2018, 12:55 pm
(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
PHOENIX – A previously opposed plan for a re-entry center at the Durango Jail Complex is no longer in the works, the state announced.
The center was meant to help parolees with job skills, drug counseling and more, and would have perhaps been on the same site as the former Tent City near Durango Street and 35th Avenue.
Gov. Doug Ducey’s office sent a letter of intent to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to see if it was a workable idea. But, the data needed from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office about those currently housed at the complex was never received.
“Unfortunately, we have not been able to obtain data from the sheriff’s office on who is currently housed at this complex and which offenders are coming and going,” said Patrick Ptak, a spokesman for the governor. “Nor have we been given access to tour this site, as initially offered.
“Our office has been in conversation with the MCSO about the previously mentioned Durango complex proposal going back to at least August.”
In a statement, the sheriff’s office said the pros and cons of the combined potential $60 million cost to revamp Tent City could not be properly evaluated in the governor’s two-month time frame.
The agency also said Sheriff Paul Penzone was hesitant to get on board because the facility seemed to be more about politics rather than public safety.
There is a re-entry center housed in north Phoenix on the Adobe Mountain Juvenile Corrections property, near Interstate 17 and Pinnacle Peak Road. It houses people who committed technical parole violations, and provides drug treatment programs.
There are three other centers that provide drug counseling, treatment and employment help for inmates located in Tucson, Lewis and Perryville prisons.
The state said it has not considered other options for the previously proposed Durango center.
“With the closure of Tent City, we saw the opportunity to bring the employment centers that are in Maricopa County to a more central location on the Durango campus,” Ptak added. “It also had the space and the capacity needed to bring these facilities here.
“If there were a different site that provided those two main factors – access and the capacity – we would have looked at it.”
The plan met immediate criticism from residents in the surrounding area of the Durango complex. Many said they were never notified of the idea, nor were they asked what they thought of it.
“This area already has an Arizona state prison, four county jails, a homeless shelter and a substantial transient population,” business owner Hal Owens said in November. “Enough is enough.”
Despite the opposition, the plan pushed onward. But, after the recent developments, Ptak said they will revisit the plan in January.
“The governor remains committed to expanding these efforts at giving our fellow citizens a real second chance,” Ptak said.
“We are currently finalizing the Executive Budget Proposal, which will be released in January and will further address the next phase of our recidivism efforts.”
