GLENDALE, AZ — Over a million Arizonans are living with the consequences of old criminal records even after serving their sentences, paying their fines, and trying to move forward. On Wednesday, a new organization launched in the Phoenix area with a mission to change that.

TimeDone, a Just Safe initiative and the nation’s largest network of people living with arrest and conviction histories, officially launched its first Phoenix chapter with a free community resource fair. The event brought together more than 27 service providers offering help with housing, employment, recovery, mental health, education and reentry support.

The venue reached full capacity, a turnout that TimeDone National Director Saad Soliman said speaks directly to the scale of unmet need in the community.

“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.

A Cycle That’s Hard to Break

For many attendees, the barriers they face after incarceration go far beyond finding a job. Soliman described a pattern he hears repeatedly: people who can find work, but not work that pays enough to cover their bills, leaving them trapped in a cycle with few ways out.

“They can find a for-now job, but that for-now job often keeps them not even able to really fully pay their bills,” Soliman said. “And some have even said something so sad that prison was easier.”

Jack Daniel, a Phoenix resident attending the fair through SMC Recovery, a 60-day subsidized transitional living program for people released from prison, said events like this one offer something that can be hard to find after incarceration.

“It’s nice, you know, to see the community or somebody in the community that actually cares,” Daniel said.

Daniel served eight months in prison on a possession of drugs and paraphernalia charge and is now in an intensive outpatient program as part of his reentry journey.

Barriers to Housing, Jobs and Even a Bank Account

Steve McLeod, who spent 20 years in prison for armed robbery, said the obstacles facing people with records are immediate and relentless.

“We put in an application, and we don’t receive that call back. We try to get an apartment, and if there’s just no way, we have to find someone who doesn’t have a record in order to get us in there and it’s really difficult sometimes to get past all those barriers,” McLeod said.

McLeod said he eventually found stability through a program that provided him housing, a job, and tools to maintain his recovery. He attended Wednesday’s event to encourage others.

Among the services available at the fair, McLeod noted that some attendees had never been able to open a bank account, a barrier that makes it difficult to receive paychecks and build financial stability.

Pushing for Policy Change

Beyond connecting people with immediate resources, TimeDone is advocating for longer-term policy reforms. Soliman outlined two key priorities: Ban the Box legislation, which would remove criminal history questions from initial job applications, and expanded record clearance and expungement opportunities.

“Until a record is removed from an individual’s record, they’re always going to be burdened by it, and the barriers that come with that record are always going to hold them back,” Soliman said.

Soliman said TimeDone, which has grown to more than 350,000 members nationwide, believes policies from the 1980s and 1990s have outlasted their value and need to be updated to create real pathways for people to earn their way back to full citizenship.

“Real redemption heals communities,” Soliman said. “97% of people in prison are coming home. We’re talking about neighbors, we’re talking about community members, we’re talking about fathers, sons, wives, sisters, daughters. That’s our community.”

For McLeod, the message to anyone hesitant to reach out for help is simple.

“Those excuses don’t exist no more. There’s many groups out here that care, and really they have; there’s an outpouring of love for us. You just have to reach out your hand and ask and put in that effort, and then there’s no stopping me, no excuses.”

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