061713IB.DOC

Informal Meeting Minutes
Monday, June 17, 2013 Board Members
10:00 AM Andrew Kunasek, Chairman, District 3
Denny Barney, Vice Chairman, District 1
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Steve Chucri, District 2
Maricopa County, Arizona Clint Hickman, District 4
(and the Boards of Directors of the Flood Control District, Mary Rose Wilcox, District 5
Library District, Stadium District, Improvement Districts,
and/or Board of Deposit)
County Manager
Tom Manos
"The mission of Maricopa County is to Clerk of the Board
provide regional leadership and fiscally Fran McCarroll
responsible, necessary public services
to its residents so they can enjoy living
in healthy and safe communities.” Meeting Location
Supervisors' Conference Room
301 W. Jefferson, 10th Floor
Phoenix, AZ 85003
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
The Board of Supervisors of Maricopa County, Phoenix, Arizona, convened in Informal Session at 10:00
AM on Monday, June 17, 2013, in the Supervisors' Conference Room, 301 W. Jefferson, 10th Floor,
Phoenix, AZ 85003, with the following members present: Steve Chucri, District 2 (via phone); Clint
Hickman, District 4; Mary Rose Wilcox, District 5; Andrew Kunasek, Chairman, District 3. Absent: Denny
Barney, District 1. Also present: Fran McCarroll, Clerk of the Board; Shirley Million, Minutes Coordinator;
David Smith, County Manager; and David Benton, Legal Counsel.
PRESENTATION
Justice Systems Planning
1. ENHANCING PUBLIC SAFETY OUTCOMES THROUGH TRANSITION FROM JAIL TO
COMMUNITY INITIATIVES AND APPROPRIATE TARGETED INTERVENTIONS
The purpose of this presentation is provide a briefing on the status of the County's Criminal Justice
System efforts focusing on enhancing public safety outcomes through transition from jail to
community initiatives and appropriate targeted interventions. (C-31-13-027-P-00)
Bill Montgomery, County Attorney
Chief Jerry Sheridan, Sheriff's Office
MaryEllen Sheppard, Assistant County Manager
Gary E. Christensen, Ph.D., President, Corrections Partners, Inc.
Tom Manos reminded Members that last January one of the Chairman’s initiatives was for a
top to bottom review of the Criminal Justice System to make it as efficient as possible to
result in a safer community. Approximately 100,000 people leave the jails every year and
many of them re-commit crimes and return to the system. He said that Dr. Gary Christensen’s
presentation will focus on best practices. Bill Montgomery and Chief Sheridan will comment
on the progress made in their Offices, and their observations of the overall program.
Bill Montgomery explained that he and his staff look for ways to resolve inmate cases in the
lowest risk group to learn which cases could be speeded up by agreeing to different terms or
conditions of release. Diversionary programs could shorten some sentences by putting

Informal Meeting Minutes
Monday, June 17, 2013
Page 2 of 6
inmates into diversionary programs. Some inmates might be entitled to early release based
on Prop 100 and other factors. He explained that public safety is the main goal in this low risk
re-entry effort. It is the high risk offenders who pose the greatest threat to public safety.
Chief Jerry Sheridan said the Sheriff’s Office is pleased to join with others in the criminal
justice system in this re-entry/reintegration effort. There are seven core-based, evidence-
based programs like Alpha (a drug and alcohol recovery program) and 19 other elective
programs that are now being used with inmates. Data collected during the last three years is
being utilized to improve re-entry outcomes. He said it is important to target those inmates
who will be most positively affected by these evidence-based programs for a more effective
use of time, effort, energies and money.
Chief Sheridan said that Sheriff Arpaio’s philosophy is that jail is a place of punishment for
crimes that have been committed. In an average year, 120,000 people are booked into
County jails and it is recognized that early offenders who are new in the system can be
rehabilitated more easily. Chief Sheridan explained that the focus should be on them.
Dr. Gary Christensen spoke about best practices in inmate transitions from jail to community.
He presented ways to apply research findings to local problems to learn what works best in
Maricopa County. The goal is to improve outcomes and enhance public safety through
evidence-based policies and practices, which are based on scientific foundational research
now available.
He said this should be approached as a “business plan” to focus on effective use of
resources and improved results, adding, “This is no quick fix” and while it will not eliminate
crime in Maricopa County, it should reduce the risk of recidivism for a certain inmate
population. Dr. Christensen based much of his discussion on statistics that have been
gathered, and said the Risk-Needs-Responsivity Model illustrates the following:
 RISK: Predicting propensity for re-offense and classifying accordingly
 NEED: Dynamic factors that influence an offender’s likelihood for successful
transition from jail to the community
 RESPONSIVITY: Programs and intervention strategies matched to offender
characteristics. It is important to match the right person with the right program
Evidence-Based Decision Making (EBDM) has Key Decision Points that local personnel can
use. These key points are:
 Arrest decisions (cite, detain, divert, treat, release)
 Pretrial status decisions (release on recognizance, release on financial bond, release
with supervision conditions, detain, violation response, supervision conditions
reassessment
 Charging decisions (charge, divert, defer, dismiss)
 Plea decisions (plea terms)
Dr. Christensen said that some people who are wild on the streets will be quiet as prisoners
because the system imposes limits that they must live by in jail that they do not know how to
impose on themselves when out of jail. The risk is managed in jail but without attaining
balance it will become a problem again when the inmate is released if there is no long-term,
public safety program to help the reintegration into public life. The program seeks is to find
the inmates who will benefit the most from the research. Often these are the ones who are
new to the system.

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Dr. Christensen said that Maricopa County is a very innovative county with many of the
current criminal justice practices already in place throughout the system. Treatment for
reintegration should be designed to a specific prisoner’s needs as opposed to a “one size fits
all approach.” Discussion ensued on the importance of individual assessments leading to the
release of inmates.
In response to questions from Supervisor Wilcox, Dr. Christensen said Maricopa County had
implemented new practices since he was last here in February 2013. He stated, “Maricopa
County is actually quite advanced in terms of its criminal justice practices.”
He spoke of the Proxy as a tool that is being used to pre-screen an individual’s risk to
reoffend. This is based on, 1. Current age; 2. Age at first arrest; and 3. Number of prior
arrests. This provides reliable data about the risk a person poses to the community. The
medium to high risk inmates are where intensive system resources are spent most wisely.
Bill Montgomery said the nature of the offense in itself also must be included in the risk
assessment.
Dr. Christensen agreed and said that Maricopa County has begun to use the “triage process”
where the offenders and their crimes are studied over and beyond what the research
prescribes. He said some of the lowest risk re-offenders in the County’s jails are the
murderers. They have probably only committed one crime but that doesn’t mean they can be
released – the nature of the crime must be a consideration of release. He added that this is a
jurisdiction-specific discussion where there is no right or wrong way. It depends on what each
jurisdiction chooses to do or not to do in a given instance.
It is not best to mix high and low risk offenders in the same program. Dr. Christensen said it is
important to compare the results from different programs to eliminate those that are least
successful.
It takes time to reduce recidivism in a local jurisdictional context but given the time, recidivism
could possibly be reduced by 30%. Risk-based information on inmates and analysis of this
information speeds success in evidence based programs. Many jurisdictions do not have risk
information to analyze and evidence-based programs would not have great success in those
cases.
Dr. Christensen discussed lower risk inmates and gave characteristics of this population,
saying such a person probably has an education, a job and could be married with a family.
They may also have a substance or alcohol problem. The length of jail time for the largest
segment of this group is from two weeks to six months and most are charged with drugs,
fraud or identity theft at the highest level – down to arson and unlawful burning. He spoke of
specific actions to take in Maricopa County to manage offenders fitting into the various
categories of low to high risk. It was reported that around 55% of locally released inmates are
back in jail within six months – nationally 80% of all recidivism happens within six months. All
justice departments work to reduce the length of incarceration and the rate of recidivism
MaryEllen Sheppard reported on the Vision, Mission and members of the Reentry Council
which was formed to help inmates re-enter society after incarceration. Members of the
Council represent a system-wide, collaborative County effort and they work toward five
reentry goals:
1. Plan and develop reentry strategies
2. Target inmates for programming based on criminogenic risk

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Monday, June 17, 2013
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3. Provide collaborative, continued, links to community-based resources
4. Enhance diversion opportunities
5. Provide internal and external staff necessary training to support evidence-based
practices and reentry
Members of this committee, Amy Rex and Therese Wagner, spoke to inform Board Members
of their experiences in accomplishing the goals of the Council using the Alpha and other
Programs.
Supervisor Hickman asked for an explanation of the Vocational and Job Readiness Program.
Ms. Wagner explained this is a four-week program to help inmates deal with the facts of their
felony conviction when re-entering the community and in building resumes, interviewing and
applying for jobs. There is also a job-skills program available post-release.
Supervisor Wilcox asked how cooperative the community is in hiring released inmates.
Ms. Wagner said that many providers are becoming quite interested in providing opportunities
for released inmates. They have been training many of the providers in a special program for
the past two years to instruct business providers in better understanding this population and
how to best work with them.
Dr. Dawn Naugle, Director of Mental Health Services, said that not all prisoners have mental
health problems but while they are incarcerated it is possible to target and interact with those
who do have or who are a high risk to develop such problems. This is done through their
assessment and by looking at their PROXY Score. She said that women are very good at
asking for what they need and the majority of requests were coming from women who were
lower risk to reoffend. “We’re providing for their mental health needs but in a model that is
going to start impacting what is bringing them back into the system.” Dr. Naugle said the
Phoenix Police are training about 500 first responders who will be able to arrive at the scene
and de-escalate the situation, helping people who do not need to come to jail and who would
benefit more from being diverted to an Urgent Care or Crisis Response Center. She stated
that it is often possible to get them admitted to the proper facility to get the help they need
within minutes.
Mike Mitchell, County Attorney’s Office, said this office is looking at the PROXY scores of
inmates to look for a faster disposition for them and find ways to expedite many of the cases.
They are also reviewing a proposal from the Public Defender’s Office on handling the
seriously mentally ill defendants. Bill Montgomery worked to get an Expanded Diversion
Program Eligibility bill passed by the Legislature and said it would provide the diversionary
program for juvenile prostitutes, victims of pimps, who usually require much victim assistance.
This would help assure their first contact with law enforcement will hopefully be the last in
their lifetime.
MaryEllen Sheppard highlighted next steps to be done in this program:
 Develop and implement an effective case management strategy
 Expand CORE Programming/Interventions for medium to high risk offenders
 Enhance connections with community based programs and services
 With the expansion of Medicaid and the impact of the Affordable Care Act, consider
assisting individuals with enrollment in Medicaid and Qualified Health Plans during
the reentry process.
 Coordinate Reentry Council work with MCJustice

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 Enhance data collection and reporting activities to:
Inform decision makers and decision making
Monitor and measure outcomes
Evaluate options for the management of low risk offenders
 Develop a Communication Plan to fully engage CJS Stakeholders, community
partners and citizens.
Ms. Sheppard introduced Richard Bacerra who has lived the system in jail and in prison.
Mr. Bacerra thanked the Board for the opportunity to speak. He said he was convicted of a
drug and assault charge in 2007 and then had a second conviction as well. He took the
advantage of attending the Alpha Program while incarcerated, where he received his GED.
He’s been asked what kept him from backsliding. He said he obtained coping skills for things
like drug addiction, parenting skills, communicating with people, learning how to build a
resume and interview for a job and in “just dealing with the real world.”
Mr. Bacerra explained that the most crucial thing for inmates leaving jail and transitioning
back to the community is to receive information on what is available to help them in
schooling, classes and financial aid. He indicated that he received $24,000 to go to school
and is now in college and will graduate next year with a degree in psychology. He told
Members that most people released from prison don’t believe they can make it and don’t
learn about the help that is available to them. He had nothing but praise for the Alpha
Program in Maricopa County and told Members they are taking the right steps.
Jeff Taylor reported that the Salvation Army provides the largest rehabilitation center in the
County for drug offenders and noted that approximately 90% of the people in their program
right now came out of Maricopa County jails. He said they are earmarking 30 beds to offer to
the County Attorney for the diversion program feeling that it is designed to really make a
difference in people’s lives. Job opportunities are re-emerging in the construction industry and
this is beneficial to those they serve.
Ms. Sheppard thanked Chairman Kunasek for issuing a special invitation to representatives
of police agencies and community providers who are attending the meeting.
Supervisor Wilcox said, “This is one of the best presentations I’ve seen since I’ve been here.”
She explained that it is often difficult to understand the bits and pieces that are often brought
before them at budget time and felt this presentation gave a comprehensive view of the silent
revolution that is going on in the Maricopa County Justice System. She felt it would be a great
help for Members in understanding the costs of some budget items that will appear in the
diversionary plan on future agendas.
Supervisor Chucri thanked the departments and everyone working in these innovative and
balanced programs.
Supervisor Hickman asked Dr. Christensen about the economic situation of the offender and
if that is used as a factor in determining risk. He said those inmates who are hired to work at
Hickman Farms have to be on the bus at 4:00 a.m. to get to work and some of the transition
effects must be more difficult than others. He asked about the vocation skills they are learning
because he felt that those inmates who go back to jobs probably don’t reoffend as quickly as
others who don’t have somewhere specific to go.
Dr. Christensen agreed, so long as they develop the specific skills they need to hold the job
and even advance. He said a lot of well-meaning people in job placement and readiness

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Monday, June 17, 2013
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programs across the country make the mistake of forgetting that specific skills need to be
developed prior to a person getting and holding a specific job. Without those skills people will
just prove that they can “get fired again because they’ve done a lot of that.” Administrators
can forget about the skills development piece that teaches the basics that many take for
granted. He explained this is not a singular approach but a broad, system-wide approach of
system interventions for each offender.
Ms. Sheppard reported that the CORE programs are intended to prepare those released
inmates to hone the skills they have.
Chairman Kunasek reminisced about the days when he and Supervisor Wilcox were going
out to ask constituents for money to build the 4th Avenue Jail. He said these facilities are
necessary now but he hoped the day would come when they are no longer needed. He
thanked all and remarked that there are a lot of people doing the right thing.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
Vote to convene in Executive Session to consider items on the Executive Agenda dated June 17,
2013, for Board of Supervisors and relevant Special Districts pursuant to statutory authority listed
for each item.
Motion to approve by Supervisor Chucri, seconded by Supervisor Wilcox
Ayes: Kunasek, Chucri, Hickman, Wilcox
Absent: Barney
MEETING ADJOURNED
After discussion on the Executive Session items, and there being no further business to come before the
Board, the meeting was adjourned.
__________________________________
Andrew Kunasek, Chairman of the Board
ATTEST:
_____________________________
Fran McCarroll, Clerk of the Board
Board of Supervisors / Directors Approved on 9/25/2013.