Phoenix Arizona-Arizona Republican leaders continue to pour money into the
for-profit, private prison industry, although Arizonans have stated clearly they
want more #SchoolsNotPrisons. Earlier this month, the state
increased its reliance on private prisons and began moving inmates into a
newly expanded facility in Eloy. This move, which could cost the taxpayers up to
about $24 million annually, will fund 1,000 new beds in the private
prison—beds the state is promising to keep at least 90 percent full.
Republican leaders are handing over a total of about $168 million this year to for-profit, private prisons
operators, although it is difficult to determine whether these facilities are
saving the state money. Republican legislators outlawed cost comparisons in
2012, but prior to that, reports indicated that private prisons weren’t actually
saving money. In 2010, the Department of Corrections showed that daily
per capita cost of prisoners in private prisons was almost 10 percent higher
than those in state prisons.
Arizona has one of the highest incarceration rates
in the country, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report.
Republicans here are spending more on the Department of Corrections than on
universities. House Democrats have been and will continue pushing for more oversight,
transparency and accountability within the corrections system. One of our
proposals is to have the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission study the current
system and make reform recommendations. Additionally, the Joint Select Committee
on Corrections should be immediately reinstated so that it can provide
Legislative oversight of the DOC and of private prisons. None of this would cost
the state a dime.
Prison reform should be a bipartisan issue. We should be
investing in our schools, so that our students have the resources they need to
prepare for high-quality jobs. And so that qualified teachers stop “fleeing
Arizona in droves.” Democrats agree that the priority is
#EducationNotIncarceration.
#DemsLead
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