5 17 2014 stsn p42 43 opinion by Times Media Group

Community Commentary

Chandler scores twice in new livability rankings

BY MAYOR JAY TIBSHRAENY

Chandler recently received two honors that continue to showcase the excellent quality of life we enjoy as a community.

The Movoto real estate website ranked Chandler as the 10th safest city in the country for large communities. And WalletHub named Chandler the 13th top municipality for “Wallet Wellness.” WalletHub is a website that provides tools and information consumers and small business owners can use to make better ﬁnancial decisions and save money.

Movoto used FBI statistics in its research while WalletHub used a number of criteria creating a “correlation between physical, emotional and ﬁnancial well-being”— or, what they refer to as wallet wellness.

Feeling safe in one’s community while having the opportunity to develop and succeed in one’s career are two critical factors of a strong quality of life. And it is a reason why many employers choose Chandler to locate and grow. Chandler is a place where their workforce will want to live. A place to raise a family, with

plenty of options for recreation and places to shop dine and worship. As the Great Recession continues to fade from our rearview mirrors, Chandler is again developing new parks, building streets and placing additional resources into maintaining our infrastructure. These are things we hear from residents as being important to them—and we are listening. In June, we will ﬁnalize our budget for the coming ﬁscal year. And once again, we are able to accelerate some projects that had been placed on hold during the hard economic times. Understanding that these practices lead to a better quality of life for our residents, we continue to do all we can to continue Chandler’s successful path forward.

When Budweiser chooses Chandler as the focal point for its national campaign to make Major League Baseball’s Opening Day a national holiday (as it did earlier this spring), you know you are on to something special. We are an exceptional place, and we will continue to focus on maintaining a livability that will attract new business, allow existing companies to grow, and position ourselves well for decades to come.

Jay Tibshraeny is the mayor of Chandler. E-mail the mayor at jay. tibshraeny@chandleraz.gov or follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ jaytibshraeny.

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Evidence-based reforms strengthen criminal justice system

BY DENNY BARNEY

There is no greater priority to Maricopa County than public safety. In the upcoming budget, the county departments that make up the criminal justice system will account for roughly 50 percent of total spending about $1 billion. That’s real money. As a county, our daily average jail bookings are around 7,800, while the average length of stay is 27 days. The population is key to note because every booking into the jail costs $266.41 and it costs $81.85 per day to house each inmate.

This commitment to public safety has been long rooted in our American democracy. In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote that among the certain “unalienable rights” are “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” and that to secure these rights, governments are instituted to secure “their safety and happiness.” More than a decade later, the preamble to the U.S. Constitution mentions as its core goals: “to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense...”

Now, County supervisors don’t run the courts, pick judges or tell the sheriff or county attorney how to run their ofﬁces. The supervisors’ responsibility is collaborative, but critical: We adopt the budget and set the tax rate. Our ﬁrst commitment is to the taxpayers and to the economic health of our county. With tight revenues, increasing demands from agencies and the public, and the pent-up demand from the prolonged recession, we must make sure every dollar is spent in the right place making the greatest impact.

Throughout the nation, policymakers are re-examining criminal justice from top

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to bottom. This movement is being led by conservative Republicans in Texas, Ohio, Georgia, Pennsylvania and elsewhere. State ofﬁcials there have been frustrated by the costly revolving door of incarceration, release and recidivism. Among a group of more hardened criminals, you could predict that three out of four will reoffend and be returned to jail or prison within 18 months. As a nation, we have to do better.

That’s why I am following closely the progress of the Maricopa County Smart Justice Initiative. The Smart Justice Initiative applies evidence-based practices across the criminal justice system. In fact, we already are doing better by applying strategies where they will be most effective and not spending money on programs that don’t work.

Very reliable research now tells us that mixing low-risk (to reoffend) offenders with more hardened criminals even in good programs actually makes the low-level criminals worse, more likely to commit new crimes. It’s smarter to move nonviolent, less risky offenders back to their families, jobs, and the community. This was a surprise to me.

The sheriff’s ofﬁce demanding 16-week ALPHA drug abuse program is already reaping rewards and lowering recidivism rates among offenders who have a moderate to high risk to reoffend. Maricopa County has a welldeserved reputation for being tough on crime. But, in addition, we must make sure that offenders don’t come back, imposing even greater burdens on the public. The ALPHA program is one example of what we are calling “Smart Justice.”

We call it “Smart Justice” because these reforms rely on detailed research that allows us to remain tough on crime but also control soaring costs, which helps the taxpayer. And that’s “smart.”

Supervisor Denny Barney, of Gilbert, is chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.

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