Last week, I was inside Maricopa County’s jail system, listening to frontline healthcare workers who care for people in custody.
I was there to conduct a culture gap analysis: to understand how to improve employee outcomes by first empathizing with the employee experience.
It was eye-opening, heavy, and deeply human.
Although I still believe our correctional model is imperfect—often fueled by retribution rather than restoration—this trip opened my eyes to a beautiful discovery: the nurses, clinicians, and staff who work here refuse to let a broken system define the people inside it. They choose to see and serve their humanity.
That’s the tension—holding on to humanity inside a system that easily forgets it.
It’s also why culture work matters. Because to truly improve a system, we must first listen to the people living within it.
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