A resource fair held to launch TimeDone's first Phoenix chapter drew such a crowd that the venue reached full capacity, as Arizonans living with old arrest and conviction histories lined up for help finding jobs, housing and even a basic bank account. Organizers brought in more than 27 service providers offering assistance with housing, employment, recovery, mental health, education and reentry support.
TimeDone describes itself as a Just Safe initiative and the nation's largest network of people living with arrest and conviction histories, claiming more than 350,000 members nationwide, according to ABC15 Arizona. The organization advocates for access to jobs, housing and second-chance resources for people who, even after serving their sentences and paying their fines, continue living with the consequences of old records as they try to move forward.
Among the barriers organizers highlighted: something as basic as a bank account. Some fair attendees had never been able to open one, which the outlet reports makes it difficult to receive paychecks and build financial stability. People with arrest and conviction histories broadly face barriers to employment, housing and banking, and even those who do find work can end up in what the report calls for-now jobs that may not pay enough to cover their bills.
A National Director's Case for Access
Saad Soliman, TimeDone's national director, framed the Phoenix launch as a response to demand he sees on the ground. “The community in Phoenix is desperate for this connection because the opposite of barriers is access, and we're here to facilitate that access,” Soliman said, per the station's report. He also pointed to a striking figure on reentry: 97% of people in prison are coming home, Soliman said.
Soliman also framed the stakes in broader terms, saying that “real redemption heals communities.” TimeDone has said that policies from the 1980s and 1990s have outlasted their value and need updating, a position that aligns with the group's longer-term push for policy reform.
Two Reentry Stories From the Fair Floor
Jack Daniel, a Phoenix resident who attended the fair through SMC Recovery, was imprisoned for a possession of drugs and paraphernalia charge and served eight months behind bars. SMC Recovery is described as a 60-day subsidized transitional living program for people released from prison, and Daniel is participating in an intensive outpatient program as part of his reentry journey. “It's nice, you know, to see the community or somebody in the community that actually cares,” Daniel said, according to the same account.
Steve McLeod, who served 20 years in prison for armed robbery, found stability through a program that provided him housing, a job and recovery-maintenance tools. McLeod said there is an outpouring of love and support for people with records, and he encouraged people who are hesitant to seek help to reach out to community groups.
Policy Push: Ban the Box and Record Sealing
TimeDone is prioritizing ban-the-box legislation, which would remove criminal history questions from initial job applications, along with expanded record clearance and expungement opportunities. Arizona currently lacks a statewide ban-the-box law covering private employers, though former Governor Doug Ducey's Executive Order 2017-07 already bars state executive agencies from asking about convictions on initial applications, per iprospectcheck. The City of Phoenix goes further for its own government jobs, waiting until after a conditional offer to run a background check and limiting inquiries to a seven-year lookback window.
On the record-clearing front, Arizona Revised Statutes § 13-911, which took effect in January 2023, lets eligible individuals petition courts to seal arrest, charge and conviction records after completing their sentence and waiting two to ten years depending on the offense class, according to the Arizona Judicial Branch. A separate credential under A.R.S. § 13-905, amended by House Bill 2067 in 2021, allows people whose convictions are set aside to obtain a Certificate of Second Chance restoring occupational licensing eligibility and shielding employers from negligent-hiring claims, as detailed by Valley of the Sun United Way.
The Scale of the Problem in Arizona
The stakes behind the Phoenix fair are large. An executive order signed by Governor Katie Hobbs found that roughly 35% of Arizonans — about one in three adults — have a criminal record, and state prisons release an average of more than 17,000 people back into communities every year, according to the Office of the Arizona Governor. The state's official three-year recidivism rate stands at 29%, driven in significant part by post-release barriers to employment, stable housing and continuous healthcare access.
Arizona does operate pre-release Second Chance Centers, a joint program between the Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry and the Department of Economic Security that places full-time career counselors inside prisons — including Perryville, Tucson and Buckeye facilities — to train inmates within 90 days of release, per the National Association of State Workforce Agencies. Employers who hire qualified formerly incarcerated workers can also claim the federal Work Opportunity Tax Credit, worth up to $2,400 per eligible hire and administered locally by the Arizona Department of Economic Security.
TimeDone operates as a national program of the Alliance for Safety and Justice, a 501(c)(3) public safety advocacy organization founded in Oakland, California, in 2018 that reported more than $60 million in revenue in fiscal year 2023. The group's push echoes a broader national pattern Hoodline covered last month, when TimeDone rallied for fresh starts at the California Capitol, citing research suggesting that legal and economic restrictions on formerly incarcerated people cost the U.S. economy up to $87 billion in lost gross domestic product annually, with an estimated 65% of people with criminal records facing unemployment or underemployment.
