The Detention Center
Santa Cruz County Adult Detention Center, housed in the Tony Estrada Law Enforcement Center
- Operated bySanta Cruz County Sheriff's Office, Detention Division, under Commander Raoul Rodriguez. Funded through the Santa Cruz County Jail District
- Jail addressTony Estrada Law Enforcement Center, 2170 North Congress Drive, Nogales, Arizona 85621. Detention Center (520) 761-7875
- How it was paid for and why it was built'In November 2005, the residents of Santa Cruz County approved a half-cent sales tax increase to fund the formation of a jail district and the construction of a new facility'
- When it opened and how big it is'The Tony Estrada Law Enforcement Center housing the new detention center opened in 2011 and is designed to house 372 inmates'. The Detention Division page repeats the figure: the centre 'has the maximum capacity of 372 prisoners greatly exceeding the capacity of 106 prisoners at the former facility'
- What it replaced'In contrast, the former Santa Cruz County Detention Center on Hohokam Drive opened in 1974 and was designed to house 52 inmates. At that time, Santa Cruz County had a population of 15,000 residents and Nogales, Sonora had a population of approximately 65,000. Since 1974, the population of Nogales, Arizona has tripled and today, the population of Nogales, Sonora is estimated at 350,000 people'
- What the county says it is for'Housing state of the art law enforcement and detention facilities, the new Tony Estrada Law Enforcement Center is designed to serve the community for many decades to come'
- Who runs the divisionCommander Raoul Rodriguez. 'The primary role of the division is to maintain custody of those prisoners who have been convicted and sentenced to time in the County facility and those prisoners waiting to be transferred to other facilities. This includes developing and maintaining records on all inmates'
- Transport'Detention officers are also responsible for the transportation needs of all inmates remanded to the custody of the Sheriff. This includes transportation to medical appointments, transportation between detention facilities, court appearances and travel between mental hospitals and other psychiatric facilities'
- Training to work thereA detention officer applicant must pass a written exam, physical agility exam, oral interview, polygraph exam, background investigation, psychological exam and medical exam, then 'graduate from an approved, 7 week detention academy' followed by firearms familiarisation, inmate transportation and field operations training
- Visitation is video only'As of 2011, the Santa Cruz County Adult Detention Center utilizes an all-new video visitation system. Now, the public doesn't have to wait in line or undergo searches in order to visit an inmate. To schedule a video visitation session contact the detention center at (520) 761-7875 at least one day in advance.' Public visitation is 'Saturdays and Sundays Only'; professional visitation runs five days a week, 8:00-11:45 a.m., 2:30-5:00 p.m. and 6:00-8:00 p.m. No price is published for a visit
- A published price, but not one of the three'Fingerprint clearance cards $7.00/per card (Money Order Only). Fingerprints are only done Monday - Friday 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.'
- Health care is contracted outThe county has run repeated solicitations for jail health care in the Jail District's name: 'Jail District Health Services RFP' (2020), an amendment to it in October 2020, a joint 'Solicitation of Proposals for: Provision of Health Care Services, Santa Cruz County Jail District and David Hathaway, Sheriff, Santa Cruz County, AZ, BID# B-08-20-CO08', and a 'Jail District Med-Psych RFP - Final' still posted in 2025
- Food is contracted outThe county published a 'Request For Proposal for Food Services for Santa Cruz County Adult and Juvenile Detention Centers', revised 1 May 2023
- What was triedThe Sheriff's Office site at santacruzsheriff.org - its home page, Jail Info, Detention Division, Meet the Sheriff, Our Team, Command Staff, Careers and FAQ pages - and the county site at santacruzcountyaz.gov, including its sitemap, Board of Supervisors, Finance, Superior Court, Justice of the Peace, Court Administration and Agenda Center pages, plus the county's document centre. No current daily population, no death in custody, no PREA audit result, no independent inspection result, no contract rate for holding other agencies' prisoners, no guidance on posting bail and no telephone, video-visit or commissary price was found
- A note on accessNeither santacruzcountyaz.gov nor santacruzsheriff.org could be read live by this researcher. The county site answers a plain HTTPS request with a Cloudflare interstitial titled 'Just a moment...' and HTTP 403, and santacruzsheriff.org does not resolve through this connection at all. Every source cited here is an Internet Archive capture of the county's or the Sheriff's own page, and the capture date is given in each citation
Source: Santa Cruz County Sheriff - Jail Info (Internet Archive capture of 28 January 2023) · checked 2026-08-23
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✗PREA audits — not published
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
- ✗How to post bond — not published
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built2011. 'The Tony Estrada Law Enforcement Center housing the new detention center opened in 2011.' The building it replaced, the Santa Cruz County Detention Center on Hohokam Drive, 'opened in 1974 and was designed to house 52 inmates'
- Original costNot found. The county publishes how the building was paid for but not what it cost
- Paid for byA voter-approved half-cent sales tax. 'In November 2005, the residents of Santa Cruz County approved a half-cent sales tax increase to fund the formation of a jail district and the construction of a new facility.' The Santa Cruz County Jail District created by that vote both financed the building and now contracts for services inside it, including health care and food
- Beds372. 'Designed to house 372 inmates', and separately 'the maximum capacity of 372 prisoners greatly exceeding the capacity of 106 prisoners at the former facility'. No current or average daily population is published
Since then
- None recorded. The 2011 building was itself the replacement for the 1974 Hohokam Drive jail, taking design capacity from 52 beds to 372
The Sheriff
Sheriff David Hathaway
- Runs the jailYes. The Sheriff's Office runs the Santa Cruz County Adult Detention Center through its Detention Division, and the county's health services solicitation for the jail is issued jointly in the names of the 'Santa Cruz County Jail District' and 'David Hathaway, Sheriff'. ARS 31-101 and ARS 11-441(A)(5) make the sheriff the jailer in every Arizona county
- How the office is filledElected. Arizona county sheriffs are elected countywide to four-year terms
- Who he is'Sheriff David Hathaway was born and raised in Nogales, Arizona. He is a member of a five-generation ranching family that has lived in the area since the 1800s, before Arizona statehood. After graduating from the University of Arizona, he started his law enforcement career as a deputy sheriff with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office working under Sheriffs Teyechea and Bracamonte. He then embarked on a federal law enforcement career and worked in multiple DEA offices in the U.S. and in foreign countries where he occupied various supervisory positions. His last assignment before retiring was as the head of the DEA office in Nogales'
- The border is the job'He recognizes that Santa Cruz County has the largest ports of entry with Mexico of any county in Arizona and he works with government, industry, and social groups on both sides of the border to promote a strong, safe, economic and cultural relationship with Mexico'
- Office2170 N. Congress Dr, Nogales, AZ 85621, the Tony Estrada Law Enforcement Center. Sheriff's Office (520) 761-7869; Detention Center (520) 761-7875
- The office's pledge'The Sheriff's Office is committed to solemnly, faithfully and impartially support the Constitution of the United States, and the laws of the State of Arizona. As an organization and as individuals, we pledge to be valiant to the public trust'
- DivisionsPatrol, Criminal Investigations, Detention, Court Security, Civil Section, Communications, Evidence and Property, SWAT, HIDTA, an Administrative Sergeant and administrative support staff
Still needed
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Santa Cruz County Sheriff - Meet the Sheriff (Internet Archive capture of 11 April 2026) · checked 2026-08-23
The Judges
Arizona Superior Court judges outside Maricopa and Pima Counties are elected countywide in nonpartisan elections to four-year terms; in Maricopa and Pima they are appointed by the Governor from a nominating commission's list and then stand for retention. Santa Cruz County therefore elects its Superior Court judges - but the presiding judgeship is a separate matter, and this county publishes the proof: Judge Thomas Fink holds it by administrative order of the Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, AO-2023-081 of 3 May 2023. Being elected to the bench and being put in charge of the court are two different acts by two different authorities. Justices of the peace are elected to four-year terms in their precinct; Santa Cruz has two precincts, though only Precinct 1, the Nogales Justice Court, has a working page and a named judge. In Arizona it is normally the justice of the peace or a municipal magistrate who sets release conditions at the initial appearance, so the officer who holds the prisoner - the elected sheriff - and the judge who decides whether the prisoner stays answer to different electorates. All of these judges are state judicial officers, not county officials, even though the county's own website hosts the justice court's pages and the county pays for the court.
Santa Cruz County Superior Court - Presiding Judge
- Thomas Fink. The county's Superior Court page refers to 'Presiding Judge Thomas Fink' and publishes the order that put him there: 'May 3rd, 2023 Chief Justice Robert M. Brutinel Administrative Order - In the matter of appointment of the Presiding Judge of the Superior Court of Arizona in Santa Cruz County' (AO-2023-081). The Arizona Supreme Court's Presiding Judges list agrees: 'Judge Thomas Fink, Santa Cruz County'. The Superior Court sits at 2160 North Congress Drive in Nogales; Superior and Juvenile Court (520) 375-7730, Clerk of the Superior Court 520-375-7700
Nogales Justice Court - Justice of the Peace, Precinct 1
- Miguel A. Lopez. 'Honorable Miguel A. Lopez, Justice of the Peace', at 2160 N. Congress Drive, Suite 2100, Nogales, AZ 85621, mailing address P.O. Box 1150. The court's mission is published as 'Bringing a new era and empowering the Justice Court in Santa Cruz County by providing a fair and approachable system of Justice by respecting the law and resolving disputes peacefully, fairly and effectively'
Justice of the Peace, Precinct 2
- Not found. Santa Cruz County has two justice precincts - the Precinct 1 page states 'An online map is available showing the divisions between districts 1 and 2', and the county sitemap still lists 'Justice of the Peace Precinct 2' - but the Precinct 2 page has returned an error rather than content since about October 2020: Internet Archive captures of /142/Justice-of-the-Peace-Precinct-2 record status 200 up to 4 August 2020 and 404 from 18 October 2020 onwards, and /350/Justice-of-the-Peace-Precinct-2 has only redirected since. No justice of the peace for Precinct 2 is named anywhere this researcher could reach
Still needed
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-23
The County Commissioners
They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and answers to voters, not to the board.
- The boardBoard of County Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- A note on access, because it shapes every citation here. Neither of this county's two relevant websites could be read live. santacruzcountyaz.gov answers a plain HTTPS request with a Cloudflare challenge page titled 'Just a moment...' and HTTP 403, and santacruzsheriff.org does not resolve at all through this connection. Every county-published source cited in this record is an Internet Archive capture of the county's or the Sheriff's own page, and each citation states its capture date. The most recent Sheriff capture read was 11 April 2026 and the most recent Board of Supervisors capture 3 March 2025.
- capacity is marked yes on the bed count alone. The county publishes the design capacity of the jail twice, in two different places, and publishes the capacity of the building it replaced as well - 372 now against 52 designed in 1974, described elsewhere as 106. What it does not publish anywhere is how many people are in the jail today.
- roster is marked no. The Sheriff's Office site has nine top-level sections - Home, About Us, Jail Info, Our Team, Communities, Programs, Safety Info, Careers and Contact Us - and none of them carries a list of people in custody or an inmate search of any kind.
- budget is marked yes with a caveat about what could be opened. The county's Finance page publishes tentative and adopted budgets in an unbroken run from fiscal year 2014/15 to 2024/25, plus Truth-in-Taxation hearing notices and press releases, and the Finance Department describes its own job as including 'Prepare and administer the annual operating budget'. The budget documents themselves sit behind the same Cloudflare block as the rest of the live site and are not archived, so the jail's own appropriation could not be quoted here.
- fees is marked no. The one price the jail publishes is unrelated to the check: '$7.00/per card (Money Order Only)' for a fingerprint clearance card. Video visitation is the only form of personal visit the jail allows and has been since 2011, but no price for it is published, and nothing is published about telephone or commissary rates.
- contracts is marked no, though the county is unusually open about the contracts running the other way - the services it buys. It has repeatedly solicited jail health care in the Jail District's own name, including a joint solicitation with the Sheriff (BID# B-08-20-CO08) and a 'Jail District Med-Psych RFP' still posted in 2025, and a food services RFP covering both the adult and juvenile detention centres. What is missing is any agreement or rate for holding another agency's prisoners.
- deaths, prea, inspections and bond_info are marked no. Nothing was found recording a death in custody, a PREA audit result, an independent inspection result, or guidance on how to post bail.
- The county's own Justice of the Peace Precinct 2 page has been broken for roughly six years. Internet Archive captures show it returning content up to 4 August 2020 and a 404 from 18 October 2020 onward, while the county sitemap still links to it. The result is that one of the two benches that sets release conditions for people held in this jail has no named judge on any county page this researcher could reach.
- The jail is named for a person, and the person is a former sheriff of this county: the Tony Estrada Law Enforcement Center. The building houses both the Sheriff's Office and the Adult Detention Center at the same address.
- Board of Supervisors, three members: Luis Carlos Davis (District 1), Rudy Molera (District 2) and John Fanning (District 3). Jesus J. Valdez is County Manager, Alma Schultz is Clerk of the Board and Elections Director, and Nicoelette Brenner is Deputy Clerk. Regular meetings on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month at 9:30 a.m. at the Santa Cruz County Complex, 2150 N. Congress Drive #120, Nogales, with a special budget meeting on the last Tuesday of June; the board publishes a Zoom link and a dial-in number and takes written public comment by email to the Clerk. 'The three Board Members are elected to a 4 year term by the electors of their respective supervisory districts.' In the county's own words, 'All department budgets, whether directed by an elected or appointed official, are set by the board. A tax rate for all taxing entities in our county is set by and adopted by the Board of Supervisors.' Santa Cruz County has a Jail District, and it exists because the voters made it: 'In November 2005, the residents of Santa Cruz County approved a half-cent sales tax increase to fund the formation of a jail district and the construction of a new facility.' The district is a contracting party in its own right - jail health care has been solicited in the joint names of the 'Santa Cruz County Jail District' and the Sheriff. Under ARS Title 48, Chapter 25 an Arizona county jail district is a taxing and financing body, not an operator; the jail itself is run by the Sheriff.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Santa Cruz County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).
How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?
Your VOTE is POWERFUL.
The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the commissioners who pay for it.
The sheriff is on your ballot
The county recorder runs the election in Santa Cruz County and prints the ballot the sheriff’s name is on. Links from USA.gov and vote.gov.
Names verified 2026-08-23 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered