Last year, Gov. Katie Hobbs signed an executive order implementing a program to address high levels of recidivism in Arizona.

Reentry 2030 is an initiative dedicated to reducing recidivism, the tendency for people convicted of crimes to reoffend, through job training and other services, Hobbs said. 

One year in, people involved say these efforts are widely appreciated but may not be enough to support full reintegration for the Tucson community.

Reentry 2030

When the initiative was signed April 22, 2025, Arizona had the 19th-highest incarceration rate in the world and a 29% three-year recidivism rate, according to the executive order.

To combat that problem, Arizona joined states including Alabama, Nebraska and Missouri in a national effort to improve public safety and expand opportunities with Reentry 2030. It works to fund programs that provide education, employment and behavioral health services to people released from correctional facilities.

“Through the bipartisan Reentry 2030 initiative, we’re committing to breaking down barriers and expanding access to jobs so that more Arizonans can achieve stability,” Hobbs said on signing day. “People who have served their time, taken accountability and put in the work to better themselves deserve a second chance and the opportunity to contribute to their families and our economy.”

Funding for the program comes from Arizona agencies, including the Office of Economic Opportunity and the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice.

Support and resources

Holley Escudero, a coordinator for the Residential Substance Abuse Treatment program at the Manzanita Unit in the Arizona State Prison Complex on Wilmot Road in Tucson, has seen improvements within her department since Reentry 2030 was introduced, she said. 

“It’s changed a lot. We’re having more hands-on training for the guys instead of just people coming in with textbooks and teaching,” Escudero said. 

The funding has also helped pay for an additional HVAC machine in one of the classrooms where the program offers hands-on workforce training. And it allows them to offer new therapy classes to improve individuals’ cognitive thinking skills when faced with triggering situations after release, she said.

She has seen this support translate into a reduction in recidivism. 

While Manzanita faces a 56% to 60% recidivism rate, Escudero said the Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Program has just a 3.6% recidivism rate out of 500 people who have been released.

Most of those improvements have come through collaborations with Reentry 2030-funded organizations like Second Chance Tucson, a coalition of organizations, people, government entities and justice-impacted people who work together to provide reintegration services for those in need.

The treatment program itself is federally funded, and Escudero said much of that funding has recently been cut back, leading them to “scrounge up donations and stuff to keep things running and going for the guys.” 

“Not to say that the state isn’t keeping us going — they are keeping us going,” she said. “It’s just that the funds that we had before to do certain things, we don’t have anymore.”

Working with organizations supported by Reentry 2030 helps lessen the gaps where direct funding falls short, she said.

Thomas Allen also works for the Department of Corrections as a peer project specialist. He said Reentry 2030 has put an emphasis on Medical Assisted Treatment, or MAT, services, which use prescribed drugs to ease withdrawal symptoms, and warm handoffs, which help with transparency and collaboration when patients are transferred from one care provider to another.

He said he wishes both of those programs were more easily accessible while he was moving through the justice system himself.

“You can walk into any of these clinics and within a 24-hour period, you can receive behavioral health and MAT services. Being able to do that is a game-changer,” he said, referring to rehabilitation clinics in Tucson collaborating with the treatment program.

“If we address the substance use and help them with Second Chance to get out, we have a lesser chance of them coming back and being better citizens for our community,” Escudero added.

Second Chance Tucson was established in 2017 with the help of retired Judge Charles Pyle and former Mayor Rothschild. It now works with more than 100 local organizations related to nutrition, behavioral health, housing and employment.

“The 2030 initiative puts it on the forefront of people’s minds that it is a topic that is important to our state and the government and that resources should be allocated to those needing the help,” said Miranda Campos, director of development and community engagement with Second Chance Tucson. 

But she thinks the initiative’s call for change requires more action.

“Now it would be wonderful to see the funding and the backing behind it, and the resources directed toward organizations and people that need it,” she said.

Challenges to Reentry

Funding provided by Reentry 2030 lacks consistency, limiting the program’s accessibility, Campos and others say.

Reentry 2030 funding and resources aren’t spread evenly throughout the state, Allen added, but are largely allocated to central Phoenix.

“I have gone to these central Phoenix Second Chance centers, and I have gone to these events, and they’re awesome, and the support is awesome,” he said. “I come to Tucson, and they’re smaller. And then you try to go someplace like Apache Junction and there’s nothing.”

Escudero said uneven distribution of funds means programs like hers reach only a limited number of facilities. The Residential Substance Abuse Treatment program is currently only available in Tucson’s Manzanita Unit, Coconino and Yavapai county jails, the juvenile correction center Adobe Mountain School and Chicanos Por La Causa’s continuing care program.

“We’re touching a third of the population” incarcerated in the state prison complex in Tucson, Escudero said. 

“I think if we give this to more of the yards and get more opportunities for us to show them we’re trying to help them make a mind change, that would be my vision for it,” she said.

Even in units already working with the substance abuse programs and Second Chance, making programs and services accessible to incarcerated people is no small feat. 

“Some of the obstacles that I’ve seen are really just being able to get people cleared to come in on a unit to speak to our gentleman,” Escudero said.

In addition to clearance issues, it’s difficult to find programs providing reintegration services, Campos said. She sometimes spends hours online tracking those programs down. For someone recently released from prison or jail who might lack technical skills or access to technology, seeking support is unattainable. 

“I think Tucson does have the resources, but I think where the (Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reintegration) and even the jails fall short is getting more collaboration with them so we have greater continuity of care before people get released,” Campos said. 

Challenges outside of the facility also impact an individual’s ability to get back on their feet. 

Tucson infrastructure

Tucson has seen a spike in unemployment, with a rate of 5.1 in January 2026 compared to 3.9 in January 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Finding employment with a record is even more difficult, Escudero said, especially for jobs that don’t require extensive physical labor. One individual she works with has been looking for a job for more than six months, she said.

Tucson’s infrastructure also leaves recently released individuals vulnerable to homelessness. In February, the Tucson City Council declared a housing emergency.

“This declaration is not just a symbolic thing,” Vice Mayor Lane Santa Cruz said during the council meeting. “It’s making sure that, in front of us, we’re keeping this urgency, this coordination and this accountability because too many of our families are one paycheck away from losing their home, and many already have.”

Allen said the unaffordability crisis disproportionately impacts formerly-incarcerated community members.

“I know a family home right now is unaffordable for someone who is sober and clean and has a job. Imagine not being sober and clean and having a job,” he said. “The problems that a normal person has and the problems that someone who suffers from addiction has are the same; they’re just multiplied by factors of 10.”

Community impact

As Reentry 2030 enters its second year, support from programs working with formerly incarcerated Arizonans may help Arizona take the needed next steps in improving reintegration and reducing recidivism, Allen said.

“The prison has worked alone for a long time, and we know that the resources out here can help in there. The community can help us move forward and hit those goals that we might be falling short of within the walls,” he said. “It’s a lifelong process of recovery.”

Collaboration across agencies and among advocates reflects a shared belief in what successful reentry should look like, Campos said.

“Empathy and compassion for one another and humanity and common decency and kindness are things that are really essential for any growth for services to be provided for anyone,” she said. “We shouldn’t be judged by our worst day, by the worst thing we ever did; that shouldn’t haunt us for the rest of our lives. Everyone is capable of change.”

Arizona Sonoran News is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism..