Housed in the now closed First Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix is the MASH unit. It stands for the Maricopa Animal Safe Haven, the unit that cares for and rehabilitates the dozens of animals who’ve been rescued by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
Alicia Cates has been working at the MCSO MASH unit for about six months.
"I take care of the animals," she said. "We feed them, we clean up after their potty breaks. We socialize them. But the most important part, I feel, is to rehabilitate them to find them their forever homes."
Cates isn’t in law enforcement, nor is she a veterinarian or vet tech. She’s serving a yearlong jail sentence. And what she’s doing here will hopefully give her marketable skills to do this kind of work when she’s released in about five and half months.
Meet Cyrus
"This is Cyrus! We call him Cyrus the virus but you know this is our potato or couch potato," said Cates.
Cates has been working with Cyrus, a wide-eyed, older pitbull, to socialize and rehabilitate him.
"He's come a long way. He was initially very toy-aggressive; very in your face. He's no longer toy-aggressive," she said.
An animal trainer comes to MASH weekly to help inmates like Cates with the rehab process — it takes time and plenty of patience.
"As you can see, when I came out he was really rambunctious, but keeping him on this leash, you know, we build the trust to build a bond to build the respect that we have for each other, and that makes them easily trainable."
Cyrus came to MASH from a domestic violence situation. The goal is to get these animals to the point where they can finally be adopted, but it’s not always easy, said Sgt. Terrell Sheline. He’s the program supervisor at MASH, so he oversees Cates and the other inmates here on this day.
"We’ve had a few people interested [in Cyrus], but it's always his age. And he doesn't get along with other dogs but loves people; [he's] great with people," Sheline said.
A 'transformational' experience
Sheline says most inmates don’t really know what to expect when they first come here, but for many of them, including Cates — who was convicted of manslaughter in 2021 — this work is transformational.
"I asked why I was here, why God put me here," she said. "And I found my purpose in life. Here at MASH," said Cates.
"They’re rehabilitating themselves while they're rehabilitating the animals, as well," said Sheline. "And that's pretty much what the program was designed for."
Four-legged victims
The MASH unit has been housing abused and neglected animals since roughly 2000. The former jail can hold more than 100 animals — animals that have been seized as evidence or are here because their owner is deceased and there’s no next of kin.
Sgt. Paul Taylor has been at MASH for a little more than three years. "Right now, we've got 43 dogs and 69 cats," he said. "We've been as high as about 285 animals at one time. And that's cats, dogs, we've had birds, we've had lizards, we've had snakes."
And often, these animals come to MASH in rough shape.
"They are usually coming from, in many cases, very deplorable situations. Hoarding cases are one of the common ones that we see," he said.
Then there are the cases of physical abuse, which can be especially challenging because the animal might be more reactive, which means tougher to rehabilitate. It’s actually one of the reasons why female inmates work here.
"Because most abusers are males. So if it's male aggression, that's something we really have to work on," said Sheline.
From there, it’s really baby steps. They try and identify what triggers the animal, once that’s determined, it’s a matter of desensitizing them to that trigger.
"And we have to basically overcome the barrier of them not having trust in us," said Sgt. Taylor. "And, it's a process that takes time."
A growing problem
The good news is, many of these animals are finding their forever home, as Cates put it. But animal abuse and neglect is a growing problem, Sheline says.
"It's almost tripled every year since about 2000," said Sheline.
So cases of animal abuse and hoarding.
"It's also in conjunction with the Valley growing more people moving here. So as the population goes up, we're starting to see more crimes like that as well," Sheline said.
Life after MASH
For Cates, her time here at MASH will soon come to an end. But life after a felony conviction can be difficult — so what’s next?
"My goal is to get out and hopefully open up my own animal sanctuary where I can open up jobs for other felons like myself," Cates said. "And I hope to change not only an animal's future, but the future of a felon."
