Neighbors upset at new felon housing

Parents say state didn’t publicize re-entry center

The Department of Corrections, looking to save money and slow the growth of Arizona’s rising prison population, has quietly opened a community re-entry center in north Phoenix off Interstate 17 — upsetting neighbors in the process.

The goal is to help provide felons with employment, life skills, temporary housing and drug-treatment programs that will keep them from returning to prison.

It’s also a second chance for those who have been released after serving 85 percent of their sentences but then commit a technical violation, such as missing meetings with a community corrections officer or drinking alcohol. Such violations can send a felon back to prison to finish the final 15 percent of a sentence.

During the past two years, about 3,500 inmates who were released returned to Arizona’s correctional system because of technical violations, serving an average of 95 days at a cost of $17.5 million, according to Corrections Director Charles Ryan.

Arizona also has bucked national trends, seeing an increasing number of inmates the past few years, causing the

state to lease more than 1,000 beds from private prisons. As of Friday, the state housed 42,706 inmates, a 6 percent increase from five years ago.

Ryan is hoping the north Phoenix re-entry center, which began housing inmates in mid-July, will mirror a similar program in Tucson that has significantly lowered the number of felons in Pima County returning to prison.

The Maricopa County re-entry center, however, has drawn the ire of some parents in the area, who said the Corrections Department provided little public notice about the new facility. And, they said, they are not happy about two dozen sex offenders being released near their schools.

As of Friday, the center served 56 felons, and the plan is to accommodate 100 inmates.

“It really seems this project was hidden from the public,” said Julie Read, who has led a group opposed to the facility. “No one up here knew about it.”

Andrew Wilder, a Corrections spokesman, said the agency provided information about the center to the nearby Deer Valley Unified School District and held a public hearing on May 24.

“The department has been forthcoming and transparent in the process,” Wilder said. “The reentry center was proposed in the governor’s State of the State address, and the department on several occasions testified during the (legislative) session.”

Wilder also said a public hearing wasn’t required, but Corrections held one anyway.

Read and Melissa Wenzel, another parent upset by the re-entry center in north Phoenix, said the agency did a poor job informing the most people about that hearing.

Deer Valley Unified School District spokeswoman Monica Allread said the school board was notified of the hearing on May 13, but no one at the district office was told of the hearing or the re-entry center until mid-August.

The district then sent a letter to parents notifying them about the center. Allread said she was unable to answer why the board didn’t notify district officials.

Read said she contacted Corrections and asked the agency to hold another public hearing, but the agency turned her down. Wilder confirmed Corrections has no intention of holding another hearing, even though he said the first was “sparsely attended.”

“They don’t want to get yelled at and have backlash,” Read said. “I don’t have a problem with the program. I have a problem with the location. … I want to hear why they didn’t choose other locations.”

The facility is adjacent to the Adobe Mountain School for juvenile offenders. A declining enrollment at the school allowed Corrections to renovate a building for the reentry center.

A pair of 10-foot, chainlink fences with razor wire separate the two facilities to make sure inmates don’t have access to the juveniles.

Residents concerned about the re-entry center can contact Corrections at mrcinfo@azcorrections.gov.

“It really seems this project was hidden from the public. No one up here knew about it.” JULIE READ WHO IS LEADING A GROUP OPPOSING THE RE-ENTRY CENTER