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A new day at PCAO If you ask Miller, everyone is either a victim or a criminal. That perspective is a product of his upbringing. Miller, whose mother was a social worker, grew up around foster homes. “From the earliest time I can possibly remember, I’ve been speaking to kids who were physically and sexually abused,” Miller said. “It wouldn’t be unusual for me to go swimming with a kid that had just been stabbed 17 times by their stepfather or to jump on a trampoline with a kid who had been locked in his closet for the last three months.” Those stories left a lasting impression on Miller, who credits the drive to put perpetrators away as a catalyst for becoming a juvenile prosecutor in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office Sex Crimes Bureau. “I saw the pain these kids had gone through,” he said. “We put a lot of people in prison who deserved to be there.” His emphasis on victim advocacy and the callback to his hype woman, Black, illustrates where most of Miller’s focus will be once he takes the helm at PCAO in January, he said. “A few people have reached out to me saying they either didn’t receive a call from victim services office, or didn’t feel supported by them,” he said. “I want to ensure those things are functioning ... making sure the person who reaches out to them figures out what a victim needs.” While Miller hasn’t publicized official plans if elected, he said he wants defendants to get harsher charges. This means limiting plea agreements, requesting harsher sentences for violent crimes and re-evaluating when diversion programs are used. “I think people look at diversion programs as a way to give somebody a second chance, and that jail is ... too harsh. But I don’t see it that way,” he said. “If we’re looking at all the circumstances, jail may be the best way and only way for a person to get in their right mind. That’s why we have it.” Evaluating his likely successor, Volkmer said he hopes there is a difference between “campaign rhetoric and reality.” “Am I happy that he’s the one driving the ship? I’m not,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t do everything in my power to allow him to successfully transition. I love this community, I chose this community. I need a strong county attorney to make good decisions for my community.” Live in Maricopa
mental health issues and 85% have a history of substance abuse. “With some of these crimes, you think, ‘Who in their right mind would do that?’ Well, they wouldn’t. People in prison are suffering from addiction and mental health issues, so they’re not in their right mind,” Volkmer said. Ultimately, the idea of simply being tough on crime and putting people in prison doesn’t work, in his eyes. “The idea that I can dissuade you from committing crimes by making the punishment severe assumes you were thinking logically, you were thinking coherently,” he said. “People with significant mental health issues and substance abuse issues don’t always think logically and their decisions don’t follow a sustained logical pattern.” Live in Maricopa
understand the factors that contribute to crime in Pinal County. The experience meant seeing offenders as not just criminals, but people with chronic mental health and substance abuse problems who may repeat old patterns. “The experience of having to sit in front of a mom who says, ‘My son is not a bad kid, he just did something stupid,’ or ‘He’s a different person when he’s using or when he’s having an episode.’ It forced me to look at that person as a human being, as someone who likely was at the lowest point on the worst day of his life,” he said. He emphasized that point multiple times during a PCAO Citizen’s Academy class in July, stating three-quarters of Arizona Department of Corrections inmates have experienced
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Pinal County Attorney Kent Volkmer debriefs in his office after hosting the PCAO Citizens Academy on June 22.
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office, we did not have qualified nurses that could do a sexual assault nurse exam,” he said. “Victims would have to commute to north Scottsdale or Tucson for an exam and many just said, ‘I can’t do that.’ That meant our law enforcement were not able to submit charges for us to prosecute and we had repeat sexual offenders not being held accountable.”
Among the programs Volkmer’s office helped create or expand: • A nationally recognized diversion program • An in-county forensic nursing program • More family advocacy centers • More specialty courts for veterans, drug charges and mental health issues • Community re-entry program for prisoners
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At the beginning of his tenure as the Pinal County attorney, Kent Volkmer said he saw a need to restructure programs and resources for both victims and offenders, like his in-county forensic nurse training program, for example. “Prior to my taking
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InMaricopa.com | October 2024
October 2024 | InMaricopa.com
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