The Pima County Attorneyβs Office has resumed charging simple drug possession cases after a more than two-month pause on the policy put in place to lower the county jailβs population amid the increasing spread of COVID-19.
County Attorney Laura Conover announced on Dec. 14 her office would no longer charge people for simple drug possession, paraphernalia or related personal-use cases. On Wednesday, she sent a memo to Southern Arizonaβs law enforcement agencies announcing the reversal of that policy.
The jailβs population was 1,671 on the day the policy went into place, and 1,673 on March 9, Conover wrote in the memo. She said law enforcement personnel were still bringing people to the jail for the charges Conover announced she would no longer prosecute, resulting in the policy having little effect on the inmate population.
In December, Conover asked law enforcement to deflect people to drug treatment β such as CODAC, a behavioral health care center, or the Crisis Response Center β instead of arresting them. But arrestees were still crowded in the initial holding area of the jail, or the βpit,β waiting to find out if theyβd be booked, she said.
βPeople were simply still brought to the jail on simple drug possession. They were booked and went into the pit for hours before they finally get to the initial appearance where my deputy could dismiss the case,β Conover said. βSo we didnβt see signs of increased deflection.β
While the Tucson Police Department has had βyears to grow accustomed to deflection,β the county attorney said, other local law enforcement agencies donβt have the same experience.
βTheyβre going to do what theyβve been doing for 20 years. Everyone does the best they can,β Conover said. βBut the result was frustrating.β
Sheriff Chris Nanos acknowledged his departmentβs deputies can use opportunities to cite and release or deflect at their discretion, but said he wishes there were more social services available outside city limits in the wider area his department patrols.
βWe try to encourage our deputies to understand in our training processes that not everybody needs to go to jail. There are other ways to deal with the situation,β he said. βBut Iβve got $18 million a year spent in my jail on mental health and drug addiction issues. Can we not give that $18 million a year to those who are better equipped to handle that?β
And although he supported the effort to reduce the jail population, Nanos said he wanted to focus on getting the hundreds of inmates booked for probation violations and other petty charges out of the facility.
βI didnβt really need (Conoverβs) help to reduce the jail population because of COVID. I mean, thatβs an honorable thing to do,β he said. βBut I stressed to her and to the courts and the judges: What I needed their help to do was to reduce the jail population because we have people in our custody who donβt need to be there.β
Conover acknowledged this idea in her memo to law enforcement and said Nanos βis dealing with some 200 inmates held on unspeakably violent crimes and trying to also manage non-violent sick people who should not be in the jail at all and are at risk for violence, and illness, and overdose.β
The county attorney asked law enforcement to continue to use deflection, adding, βI donβt need the jail to help me hold non-violent people accountable. I can and will do that through charging.β
βBrutal choiceβ
Former County Attorney Barbara LaWall made a similar decision to halt simple drug possession charges in March 2020. Conover said she resumed prosecuting those cases as her office launched the nationβs first pre-charge drug court, STEPs, or Supportive Treatment and Engagement Program, with the goal to divert nonviolent people with substance use disorder away from the criminal-justice system.
βIt seemed safe to move people quickly from arrest, out of custody, into the STEPs court. So I lifted it,β Conover said.
But when Conover stopped simple drug charges as a COVID-19 mitigation measure again in December, the STEPs court wasnβt able to fully serve its purpose.
βThe court had made it clear that the STEPs court was going to die on the vine because I hadnβt put anyone into the court since the (December) memo. So it was empty now,β she said. βIt was a brutal choice because at the end of the day, Iβm not convinced that adding criminal-justice system involvement to a person already suffering from substance-use disorder, Iβm not convinced yet that that that makes it better and in fact, worse.β
Joel Feinman, the countyβs public defender, is set on the belief that the criminal-justice system fails to help those with substance-use issues.
βCriminalizing minor drug possession use has never worked in 100-plus years of the war on drugs. It never will work,β he said. βSubstance abuse is not a criminal-justice issue. It is a mental health and a public health issue.β
Conover said those suffering from substance use and mental health issues can attend the STEPs court to receive treatment instead of spending time in jail.
βIt seemed to be the better of the two options. β¦ STEPs court I donβt think really even has a full six months of data yet,β she said. βI think everyone worked so hard to launch it. Itβs absolutely worth testing and seeing if we canβt get results, especially maybe post-COVID.β
But Feinman argues reinstating the policy to charge simple drug possession negatively affects those who need treatment by continuing to criminalize them.
βAt the end of the day, you are still arresting people for crimes and charging them with felonies. Youβre still treating it like a criminal-justice issue,β he said. βIt doesnβt mean creating specialty courts and behavioral health courts within the criminal-justice system. It means not doing the same thing slightly different.β
For now, the idea is to see if the STEPs court can fulfill its purpose and help divert those with substance use disorder away from jail.
βIt deserves a real test. And then weβll do just what we did here, review again,β Conover said. βIs deflection still better than STEPs? We need to set up these markers to figure out how to get the best results.β