by Joe Watson Last week, the Arizona Legislature failed to advance common-sense sentencing reform proposals that would have moved our state away from the outdated policies that continue to proliferate mass incarceration and waste hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars every year. Both HB 2270, sponsored by state […]
January 22, 2018 Phoenix, AZ. Today, Governor Doug Ducey will call a special session to address the opioid crisis in Arizona. If passed, the Arizona Opioid Epidemic Act would provide millions in additional funding for drug treatment services, expand access statewide to life-saving opioid antagonists such as Narcan […]
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 […]
AFSC Arizona has released their newest publication, Community Cages: Profitizing Community Corrections and Alternatives to Detention, an in-depth analysis of the community corrections segment of the Treatment Industrial Complex. As states pursue sentencing reform efforts to reduce prison populations and the federal government continues to grapple with comprehensive […]
It’s election season and there are many options on your ballot this year. Somewhere in the middle there is the candidate(s) for County Attorney. DO YOU KNOW YOUR COUNTY ATTORNEY? Even more importantly, DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE COUNTY ATTORNEY DOES? If you have no idea what […]
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 […]
Think Arizona spends too much on prisons? Now is your chance to be heard!! After banning public testimony during departmental budget hearings, the House Appropriations Committee has decided to hold a “Budget Conversation Tour,” to solicit public input on the state budget. Gov. Ducey has stated that he wants […]