What's the worst thing about visiting friends and relatives locked up in the prisons outside Tucson?
If you said the drive, you're in luck.
A small local company is operating weekend shuttle rides to and from correctional facilities in and around Florence, a service that includes door-to-door pickup and drop-off.
Arizona Transportation Express has also begun taking trips to the Arizona State Prison complex on South Wilmot Road south of Interstate 10.
"Everyone we've taken has been so happy about this," co-owner Carmen Serventi said. "A lot of women … they don't feel comfortable driving there by themselves. Or they don't have a reliable car."
Serventi, who operates the shuttle with her brother, Jerry, said she got the idea for a shuttle service after giving a friend several rides to one of the state prisons about 50 miles north of Tucson.
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It was on the long, lonely drive back one day that Serventi said she noticed several people walking along the side of the two-lane state highway, presumably heading home from a prison visit.
"I'd see all these people walking, and I wanted to pick them up and bring them back to Tucson," Serventi said.
An Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman said he was unaware of any other shuttles catering to prison visitors.
The shuttle is low on frills, but convenient. For $40 a 15-passenger van comes to your home on either Saturday or Sunday morning then heads north. Passengers are dropped off at whatever prison where they've arranged to visit a friend or family member. The shuttle comes around again to pick them up and bring them back to Tucson once visiting hours are over.
In situations where visiting hours for passengers overlap each other, the shuttle driver will also take clients to restaurants around Florence to grab a meal while waiting for the ride back, Jerry Serventi said.
The cost is only $10 for trips to the Wilmot prison, a price Amy Gutierrez said she considered a steal.
"When they told me $10 I was like, is this for real?," said Gutierrez, whose brother Michael Garcia has been housed at the Wilmot complex for the past two months. "I gave them my information and the next day they were here about a half hour before visitation" began.
Gutierrez, who previously had to find rides to Safford to see her brother, said she plans to spread the word about the shuttles, a service she anticipates many people needing.
"I think it will be a good thing for families to help them come together," Gutierrez said.
Contact reporter Brian J. Pedersen at 573-4224 or bjp@azstarnet.com
