OVER INCARCERATION
The Coconino County Jail has the second highest incarceration rate per capita in recent years in comparison to other Arizona county jails. The State of Arizona has the fifth highest imprisonment rate per capita in the nation and the eighth highest in the world. I have seen it firsthand in our county; one of the most egregious examples is a man sentenced to prison for several years for felony shoplifting upon stealing a 99 cent bottle of malt liquor.
This sentence is not justice. This man had a serious alcohol addiction and while consequences are appropriate, he also should have been shown more compassion. The cost of his incarceration is also way out of proportion to his offense. He was a homeless individual and it would have been more just and cost-effective to divert him into a program that provides housing and makes treatment available.
The bottom line is that we ask too much of the criminal justice system to address social issues such as drug addiction, alcohol abuse, mental health and homeless. We need to look to public health models for addressing them. Arrests of men and women and incarceration of them that does little to change behaviors arising from drug addiction, alcohol abuse, mental health and homeless.
INCARCERATION OF OUR MENTALLY ILL
A sizeable portion of the jail population suffers from mental illness or disability. Estimates range from 20% to 40%. Many of them need medication, but they cannot receive at the jail. If they have prescribed medications on them, when arrested, they are taken away and are not available to them while incarcerated. They are stored with their property – their clothing and backpack – in a closet and returned to them, when released. Unfortunately, at that point, if off psychiatric medication, the arrested inmate most likely has decompensated and is suffering from psychosis.
They are available in other counties. Maricopa resolved a lawsuit over the lack of basic mental health services about a decade ago; its inmates now have access to prescribed medication for mental illness. Similarly, Yavapai County in recent years has to provide such access.
The problem is costs. Once a person is incarcerated, the county jail is responsible for all the costs for medical and mental health services. ACCCHS and other Medicaid services are suspended.
There are solutions and I would advocate for them. Nationwide counties are reducing their jail populations and if we could reduce our jail population, then dollars would be available to provide for the mental health services needed in our jail. We also need to look to diverting out of the jail – depending on the situation giving rise to the arrest – and placing them in the Guidance Center (our public behavioral health hospital). Additionally, we need to finding housing options and improve access to our behavioral health case management services. Good model exists that utilize people in the community to develop and build relationships with our unsheltered mental ill, so as to develop trust and enable placement into housing, where services are available for them.
We have had more robust community based services for our mentally ill, when we deinstitutionalize hospitalization. However, they have been cut over the decades.
I want to ensure that we have a conversation with our community about our mentally ill and bring public health models into such discussions. It can improve public safety and ensure more compassion for our mentally ill.
ABORTION AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH RIGHTS
Abortion and reproductive health care are fundamental rights of every woman. I have held this view since I was a teenager and I have never wavered from it.
A woman’s right to reproductive health is a right to bodily autonomy. All humans have a right to obtain information about their health issues and confer with whom they choose in deciding how to address them. Health issues can be complex and how to address them is a personal decision.
As your County Attorney, I will not prosecute a woman for getting an abortion, nor will I prosecute any doctors, nurse practitioners or other medical providers and their organizations who perform or assist a woman in receiving an abortion. I also will not prosecute a family member or friend who assists a woman in transporting or obtaining an abortion.
I supported Governor Hobbs executive order directing our Attorney General Kris Mays to handle all abortion related prosecutions. Such centralization ensures a consistent statewide policy to protect the reproduction right of woman and ensure access to an abortion. Our County Attorney’s Office opposed the Governor’s order.