Investing in a Safer, Healthier Yavapai County
Did you know? Access to care can actually keep people from committing crimes and help make communities safer—a connection that’s not always obvious.
Here’s how: When people get support for mental health, substance use challenges, housing, and other basic needs, they’re far less likely to end up back in the justice system. The phrase reducing recidivism means preventing people from reoffending – and Yavapai County is doing this with care and support at the center.
“We’re focusing on reducing recidivism, which means we’re focusing on a population that’s already come into contact with the justice system,” said Beya Thayer, Executive Director of the Yavapai Justice and Mental Health Coalition, and Director of Behavioral Health Services at the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office. “And then we put support and effort around what that person might need to stop the cycle.”
Health support that can stop the cycle
Yavapai County launched the Re-entry Connections Center next to the Prescott jail – with a second on the way in Camp Verde. It’s a space where people can go right after leaving jail to talk to the County Health Service’s community navigators, peer support specialists, and connect to care.
“It’s like a one-stop shop,” Thayer explained. “A lot of people released from jail don’t know what they are supposed to do next. They can utilize the space to get connected to services they need like housing, transportation, peer support programs, clothing and hygiene supplies, behavioral health providers come and meet with people, we give them food resources, and more.”
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona Health Choice, the AHCCCS-contracted Medicaid plan affiliated with AZ Blue, has reinvested more than $650,000 in Yavapai County since 2021 to support the Re-entry Connections Center and other services that set people up for success – and help build safer, healthier communities.
“The funding from AZ Blue has enabled our community behavioral health partners to work alongside our Inmate Services Division to do case management and intakes while people are incarcerated to ensure a transition to needed services,” Thayer said. “We would be nowhere without that community reinvestment funding.”
These investments have contributed to a major milestone: Yavapai County has its lowest average daily inmate count in nearly a decade. Thayer said since 2017, the county’s population has increased about 9%, while the jail numbers have gone down 9%.
“It should be climbing at the same rate—but it doesn’t,” she noted.
“Seeing the results from years of investment in Yavapai County is remarkable,” said Dr. Heather Carter, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona Health Choice CEO. “Being able to connect people to care and support that actually makes a difference—and makes our communities safer—makes us proud to do this work.”
The path to prevention
The top reasons people cycle in and out of jail in Yavapai County? Lack of stable housing and untreated behavioral health challenges.
“People who disclose higher risks for substance use and mental health come back at a higher rate,” Thayer said. “And those without safe, continuous housing come back at the highest rate of all.”
Thayer said it’s important to provide support as early as possible, ideally before a person even enters the justice system.
“We intervene when someone is already in the justice system, we want to get there earlier, so people don’t get into trouble in the first place.”
That’s the vision driving change in Yavapai County, and why AZ Blue continues to support it.
“We rely on our community partners,” Thayer said. “Behavioral health, social drivers of health like housing, and criminal justice don’t always speak the same language. These partnerships are imperative. We can’t do any of this without support.”
Learn more about our reinvestment efforts: https://www.azblue.com/newsroom/news-releases.