By AFSC-AZ Staff | Tomorrow, Arizona’s Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) will consider a request from the head of the state’s Department of Corrections (ADC) to re-open the Papago Unit – a converted motel in Douglas that once served as a prison – to accommodate a projected increase […]
By AFSC-AZ Staff | At last week’s Arizona State Prison Town Hall, organized by American Friends Service Committee-Arizona (AFSC-AZ) and LUCHA, hundreds gathered to tell story after story of neglect, suffering, abuse, and preventable deaths inside the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC). As Phoenix New Times reported, as […]
by AFSC-AZ Staff | A recent exposé by ABC15 reveals that the cell door locks at the Lewis State Prison in Buckeye have been broken for more than five years, allowing for horrifying assaults against both incarcerated people and guards. At least one man has died as a result. […]
Arizona’s Governor Doug Ducey, like many politicians, is a big proponent of running government “like a business.” This resonates with many voters, who mistakenly think that the cutthroat winners-and-losers paradigm of the free market somehow benefits them (as they work three part-time jobs with no healthcare and send […]
The American Friends Service Committee has long been opposed to Arizona’s deep financial involvement in the for-profit private prison industry. Fundamentally, that is because we believe that incarceration for profit is immoral. But we also know that these corporations are profoundly mismanaged, negligent, and do not deliver the […]
As so often with this process, there’s good news and bad news. THE GOOD NEWS: We have so far succeeded in moving two bills through their first set of committees. SB1071/HB2290: Directs occupational licensing boards to give provisional licenses (90 days-1 year) to people with criminal convictions. Identical […]
While I was incarcerated at Marana State Prison, another inmate gave me a poem she wrote called “What No One Wants to Hear”. *It’s a pretty heavy poem- it captures a lot of the emotion of being incarcerated- anger, sadness, isolation, and inhumanity. I had been in and […]