Governor Katie Hobbs signed a bill that some prison reform advocates say will establish needed oversight of Arizona’s correctional system, but a last minute change has left its funding uncertain.
Senate Bill 1507 establishes the Independent Correctional Oversight Office, tasked with monitoring the prison system for policy compliance and tracking inmate health and safety.
According to the bill, its key functions consist of two new complaint systems, including a phone line and online forms for department employees and inmates, as well as an annual report to the state legislature tracking deaths, suicides, overdoses, lockdowns, solitary confinement use, and violence, among other data points.
The bill received bipartisan support, but the version of the bill Hobbs signed into law didn’t include the $1.5 million in state funding proposed in previous versions.
Republican State Senator Shawnna Bolick (R - Deer Valley), the bill’s sponsor, said the governor struck the funding last minute, leaving the new office currently inoperable.
“She no longer wanted to have this in place. Didn't see a need for it,” Bolick said.
Hobbs’ office referred AZPM to comments co-Sponsor Rep. Walt Blackman (R - Snowflake) made on the House Floor in February that suggest the office was prepared to run on grants and donations.
“There are no dollars tied to this, we’re talking federal grants, we’re talking gifts,” he said.
Blackman later said the decision to remove the state funding effectively made the office “just a press release.”
The final bill’s language does not specify a funding source, but allows “legislative appropriations, federal monies, and private grants, gifts, contributions and devises.”
Executive Director of the Justice Action Network Lauren Krisai said bipartisan support of the office is significant, although the lack of clear funding is a challenge.
“The fact that this had so much bipartisan support in both chambers is an enormous success,” she said.
Krisai said oversight is most effective when there are internal and external accountability measures.
“You want to have an anonymous way for those who are incarcerated, their family members, people who work inside the prisons, to report an issue so that an external, unbiased entity can investigate,” she said.
The push for more insight into Arizona’s prisons comes a few months after inmate Ricky Wassenaar killed three at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Tucson. Bolick said lawmakers would try to secure state funds again in the next legislative session.
