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Sheriff David Rhodes informed us that the new Justice Center in Prescott has opened with 152 beds, and is a dual-function facility, housing both a jail and courts. The opening of this center greatly reduces the costs of transporting the incarcerated back-and-forth from the Verde Valley jail to the courts here in Prescott.
The Justice Center's focus is on more effective use of resources to eliminate, as much as possible, the "revolving door syndrome" (reducing recidivism — repeat offenders) by incorporating the traditional judicial system with behavioral health resources. Analysis is done to determine WHY a person has committed a crime, and why they may continue to commit crimes, unless the individual gets help; and then they work on getting the type of help the person needs. The sheriff estimates that 70-80% of crimes are related to some mental health issue. He also told us that 80% of crimes here in this county are drug related, and that most involve fentanyl. Before being released back into the community, release coordinators perform a needs assessment, and attempt to help the person successfully navigate through the challenges of re-entry, including finding employment. The lack of affordable housing in this area is a large problem.
The good news, though, is that this approach which Sheriff Rhodes has been advocating, over the past 3 years he has been in office, has begun to make some significant reductions in the recidivism rate here in Yavapai County. Our county's program is now regarded as an admired model, which other counties are wanting to replicate. Thank you, Sheriff Rhodes, for your service, for a very interesting program, and for your candor in answering our questions.   How Small Rotary Projects Can Influence Global Change Once upon a time, in 1979, there was a small local Rotary club in the Philippines. They had a vision: they wished to immunize their community's children against polio, a devastating disease that cripples and often kills. This little club began to mobilize resources and soon accomplished their goal. Their success did not end there. Word of their achievements spread across the global Rotary network. This local effort inspired the launch of PolioPlus in 1985, which was the spark for a global initiative to eradicate polio. From that modest beginning in the Philippines, Rotary, along with its partners, has reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent worldwide. COMMUNITY SERVICE Pictured are PHS Interactor Ciara Coleman, Marty Coleman, Crew Chief Matt Greenlee and Todd Clancy (with Art Harrington behind the camera), along with our collected bags of trash.. It was a small, but hard-working Roadside Cleanup Crew last Saturday morning, doing our trash pick-up along our club's one mile of Highway 89, south of Prescott. When half of our crew accidentally missed our sign, and cleaned up an additional quarter mile north of our section of the highway, we found dramatic evidence of the effectiveness of our club's semiannual maintenance of our mile. We picked up three times as much trash in that section than we found along our Rotary mile. Ask Todd about his most interesting discovery Saturday morning, which brought a state trooper to his home later in the day to question him, and to take possession of what he found. YOUTH SERVICE Joint PHS Interact & Sunup Rotary Crutches Rehab Project this Saturday, Oct. 21, 9:00 a.m. at Ponderosa Mini-Storage, 555 N. 6th Street, Prescott 86301. It's a lot more difficult for our Interact Ambassadors to repair donated crutches when they are in Kenya, than for our Rotary and Interact Club members to work together to rehabilitate those crutches while we still have them here, and have the spare parts to do the job. Plan to join us for an interesting and rewarding time this Saturday morning, cleaning up some of the donated disability equipment, and replacing some of the worn, cracked or missing parts on some of the crutches and walkers. REMEMBER that Ace Hardware in Prescott Valley, located at 7211 E. First Street, is doing a Register Round-Up during the entire month of October, with the proceeds to be donated to our Interact Crutches 4 Africa and Interact Ambassadors program. Please purchase your hardware and home repair supplies from them this month, and remember to thank them for their support of our Rotary-sponsored youth program. INTERNATIONAL SERVICE Our club is sponsoring a social and fundraiser Pints 4 Polio event on Tuesday, October 24, World Polio Day, between 4:30 - 6;30, at the Lazy G Brewhouse. Please save the date on your calendar Have you signed up yet to participate in part or all of the USA/Mexico Friendship Conference & Global Grants Exchange, October 27-29, when it is coming to Prescott? This phenomenal annual international Rotary projects fair has been operating for more than 20 years, alternating between locations in Mexico and Arizona each year. You will never have a better opportunity than this to see, with your own eyes, how, beginning at the club level, Rotary manages to build large Global Grants projects, which meet needs and do an incredible amount of good in countries around the world. If you would like to participate in the home hosting of one or more of the Rotarians who will be traveling from Mexico to Prescott to participate in this conference, let Todd Clancy know: (480) 285-7719, taclancy2000@yahoo.com.  An explorer in the deepest Amazon suddenly finds himself surrounded by a bloodthirsty group of natives. Upon surveying his situation, he says quietly to himself, "I'm toast."
A ray of light breaks forth from the sky and a voice booms out: "No, you are NOT toast. Pick up that stone in front of you and bash the head of the chief."
So the explorer picks up the stone and proceeds to bash in the head of the chief. He is breathing heavily while standing above the sprawled out-chief.
Surrounding him are the 100 native warriors with a look of shock on their faces.
The voice booms out again: "Okay...NOW you're toast!" __ I have an 18-year-old; her name is Alexis. I chose that name because if I hadn’t had her, I’d be driving one! __ An old farmer is inconsolable after his dog goes missing.
His wife suggests he take out an ad in the newspaper, which he does.
But two weeks later, there’s still no sign of the mutt.
“What did you write in the ad?” his wife asks.
“Here boy,” he replies. __ |
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