Quick Take
A strong reentry plan after time spent in jail can disintegrate over something as small as a phone, a bus ride or a $75 fee, writes Heather Rogers, Santa Cruz County’s public defender. She and her staff of 64 attorneys regularly solve complex problems, but public dollars often can’t cover these immediate, practical needs. That is why she has helped co-found the BRIDGE Foundation, a nonprofit designed to fill gaps in the system and help people overcome small barriers – like access to transportation or fees for an addiction program – that can keep them stuck in the criminal legal system. The BRIDGE Foundation is launching with a fundraiser Thursday in collaboration with the Homeless Garden Project.
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A month of storage, so everything a person owns isn’t thrown into a dumpster while he sits in jail. Luggage locks. A twelve-step workbook. A solar charger. Twenty-five dollars to enroll in a court-ordered class.
These are a few of the modest things people navigating the criminal legal system need to move forward. For most of my more than 20-year career as a public defender, we had to say no to these requests – not because we were unwilling to help, but because public money often can’t reach the small, immediate needs that determine whether someone succeeds.
The Santa Cruz County Public Defender’s Office opened its doors on July 1, 2022. Today, I lead a team of 64 attorneys, investigators, social workers and other professionals who do more than defend cases. We practice community-based, whole-person defense. That means working with the person behind the case to identify the circumstances that brought them into the system – and helping them build a path forward.
We develop housing plans, arrange treatment, pursue benefits and identification, and gather records that tell the fuller human story of why someone entered the system and how they intend to leave.
Still, we frequently hit a wall. We solve the complicated part – the plan – only to get snagged on something simpler: a small purchase.
A social worker spends three weeks securing supportive housing, only to see the placement lapse for lack of a deposit. A client is accepted into residential treatment, but has no transportation when intake opens. A person experiencing housing insecurity can’t keep a phone charged without a solar charger.
The plan may be sound. The person may be ready. The opportunity may be real. Yet the whole effort can unravel over something that costs less than many of us spend on dinner.
So, we patch things together. We ask community partners for donations and devise workarounds. Too often, the solution arrives after the opportunity has passed.
Sometimes, we still have to say no.
Our most common request is for a working phone. A phone is how someone hears back about a job, receives a court-date reminder, reaches a treatment counselor or speaks with a lawyer. Without one, nearly every other form of assistance becomes harder to provide.
Here is what should trouble the fiscally cautious among us: we spend heavily to keep people involved in the system — on jail beds, prosecution, and warrants — yet struggle to fund small purchases that could help someone leave it.
Public dollars appropriately come with eligibility rules, fiscal deadlines and accountability requirements. Taxpayers deserve to know how their money is spent. But those safeguards also leave gaps – a jacket, a class fee, a ride to treatment – that can determine whether a plan succeeds.
Most of us have a bridge — a parent, sibling, a friend with a truck, a congregation or group chat where we can say, “I’m short this month,” and someone responds, “How much?”
That bridge is invisible until we need it. Many people served by the Public Defender’s Office don’t have one — not because they are less worthy, but because the forces that brought them through our doors are remarkably effective at isolating people.
The BRIDGE Foundation of Santa Cruz County was created by a group of volunteer public defenders, including me, to see whether neighbors could provide what the system cannot. Since we received our nonprofit certification late last year, we’ve been quietly testing the program.
BRIDGE is an independent 501(c)(3). It accepts no public funds and is not a county program — it’s a community response to a problem the system has been unable to solve.
BRIDGE allows us to say yes.
Yes to work boots. Yes to a housing deposit. Yes to a ride at 6 a.m. because the bus doesn’t run early enough for an 8 a.m. appointment.
During a soft launch, BRIDGE awarded about $1,300 to 16 adults and young people served by the office. The average grant was $75.
One grant paid for an electric scooter for a man who was struggling to make appointments without it. Another paid for an introductory equine-therapy session for a young woman who had made little progress in talk therapy. She wanted to work with horses. Someone in our community heard her story and paid for a full year.
On Thursday, Aug. 20, we will formally launch the BRIDGE Foundation at the Homeless Garden Project from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at Natural Bridges Farm on Schaffer Road. Ticket sales and proceeds will benefit both organizations. Come learn about the people and purpose behind BRIDGE – and help build a bridge too many people lack.
People don’t always get stuck on the complicated things. Sometimes they get stuck $75 short of their next step — and remain stuck.
A bridge is invisible until you are standing at the edge of an expanse you cannot cross alone. Too many of our neighbors reach for one and find nothing there.
Sometimes, $75 is all it takes to help someone reach a more promising future.
Heather Rogers is the public defender of Santa Cruz County and a co-founder of the BRIDGE Foundation of Santa Cruz County, an independent nonprofit that accepts no public funding. She wrote this in her personal capacity as a BRIDGE co-founder. BRIDGE holds its public launch on Aug. 20 at Natural Bridges Farm in partnership with the Homeless Garden Project; more at bridgefoundationsantacruz.com.
