There are solutions to safety on the Loop that reach beyond more law enforcement and more arrests. Pima County has a program that works to help people who get out of jail—never come back.
When it comes to crime on the Loop or any sort of street crime, sometimes you’ll hear people say, “Why not just lock them up? But minor offenders don’t stay in jail forever so what then? Part of the answer is at the Pima County Transition Center.The Center is in the shadow of the County Jail where it works to lift the shadow of the forces that can send a low level offender back to jail, or back into the troubled environment that can make them a danger to other people and to themselves.
As people get released from jail, someone from the Transition Center is there to greet and offer them help. Doyle Morrison is the Center’s outreach director. He says those Navigators have steered through some of the same rough seas of substance abuse, mental health troubles and living on the streets…