An in-depth look at the Arizona prison crisis and the critical challenges it faces — from staff shortages to violations of inmates’ rights, revealing a system on the brink.
The Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry (ADCRR) is in crisis. They are now chronically short of staff, resulting in prison lockdowns and, on occasion, department-wide lockdowns where the Arizona National Guard has been brought in. They have been under a permanent injunction for unconstitutional provisions of healthcare and unconstitutional living conditions since April 7, 2023 (see Jensen v. Thornell et al., CV-12-601-PHX-ROS). U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver has held ADCRR in contempt three times since then, assessing millions of dollars in fines. She has told ADCRR not to come into her court with the excuse that they are short of staff, which is unacceptable.
Recently, ADCRR correctional officers have been walking off the job en masse. ADCRR is so desperate that they have been calling some of those officers at home begging them to return to work.
The basic qualifications for the job are to be 18 years old, have a high school diploma or G.E.D., and have a valid driver’s license. You don’t even have to be a U.S. citizen; as long as you have a green card, you can get hired. Some officers who are Mexican citizens live in Mexico and commute over the border each day to work in prisons in Douglas and Yuma.
Pay is pretty good for Arizona, considering the minimal job requirements. They receive health insurance and must set up their own 401K retirement plans. Many officers supplement their income by working overtime shifts, which are readily available. Others make additional money by bringing in drugs.
People usually come to work as correctional officers in Arizona by default. Something else didn’t work out. Some aspired to a career in law enforcement at the state, county, or city level but couldn’t make the grade. When you were in school, did any of your friends say that when they grew up, they wanted to be a prison guard? Neither did mine.
On the negative side, the job comes with a lot of stress. Prison guards have high rates of divorce, alcoholism, and suicide. On the positive side, it’s easy to get hired and almost impossible to get fired.
Recently, some officers have been refusing to pass out mail. One officer refused to deliver our mail and then moved it to another yard to conceal it and delay delivery. He still works here. Another officer told the prisoners, “Fuck your mail,” and threw it in the trash. There was so much prisoner opposition to him that he quit. Correctional officers become de facto agents of the U.S. Postal Service when they accept responsibility for delivering our mail. Both of these scenarios are violations of federal law. Obstruction of correspondence USCA 18 701 and delay or destruction of mail USCA 18 703 are punishable by fines, imprisonment, or both.
Another officer who was driving a new state-issued Ford F-150 pickup truck delivering sack dinners to the yards began spinning doughnuts on the basketball court, and a prisoner was thrown from the back of the pickup, landing on the concrete, suffering a critical head wound. The last we heard, he was still in the hospital and hadn’t regained consciousness.
After the incident, ADCRR officials requested this officer to take a drug test. He refused, but word on the yard is that he still works here. If this prisoner dies, this officer should at least be charged with negligent homicide. Officers almost never face criminal charges, no matter what laws they break. At worst, they might get fired, but that is quite rare.
Because of the staff shortage, guards are now called on to sometimes run two or more yards in violation of policy (our unit has four yards, each with 192 prisoners). Guards are required to make rounds every 30 minutes and no longer than each hour. Sometimes, we go for an hour and a half or more with no rounds. There is no officer in the yard. If a prisoner has a heart attack or seizure, there is no way to get help. They just die. The inmate grievance system is meaningless in these cases. We are forced to appeal to the U.S. Postal Inspector and our Governor, Katie Hobbs, and beg the federal courts to uphold our constitutional rights.
We know it can’t continue to go on like this. Staff are becoming irrational from the stress. We are reaching a breaking point. Arizona prisoners are waiting for the federal courts to order a federal takeover of ADCRR medical and psychological services, just like they did in California several years ago. The federal courts/government really don’t want to micromanage state prisons, but they may have no choice.
Arizona currently has over 40,000 prisoners in ADCRR. We are overloaded with seriously mentally ill prisoners, drug addicts, sex offenders, Mexican nationals (Paisas), and young males we call “can’t get right” because they can’t or won’t obey the simplest rules.
Some prisoners could be safely released into intensive probation, regular probation, parole on home arrest, residential drug treatment programs, secure mental health facilities, and nursing homes. The time is coming when Arizona taxpayers are going to refuse to continue funding a failing prison system to the detriment of other needs like education. The bottom line is the recidivism rate—the rate at which Arizona prisoners who are released return to prison. The sad truth is that most Arizona prisoners who are released are coming right back to prison. They are doing what we call “life on the installment plan.” They just haven’t woken up to that realization yet.
If ADCRR is unable to staff its prisons, then Arizona must find ways to release prisoners without endangering public safety. Millions of taxpayer dollars can be saved by closing prisons, reducing staff, and changing the laws. If someone wants to change, no one can stop them. Conversely, if someone doesn’t want to change, no one can make them. The time has come for ADCRR to take a real look at prisoners who have changed and give them a second chance.
