By Caroline Isaacs | Despite the nail-biting tight races and seemingly endless counting processes, there is much to celebrate in the election outcomes in Arizona this year. It’s not the landslide victory many of us hoped and fought so hard for, but it is a perceptible shift and […]
Press Contact: Joe Watson Phone: 602.383.4155 Tucson, Arizona — June 14, 2018 — The American Friends Service Committee of Arizona was disheartened to hear of Speaker J.D. Mesnard’s decision to dissolve the Ad Hoc Study Committee on Criminal Justice Reform today in response to Rep. David Stringer’s derogatory […]
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 […]
Arizona is long overdue in implementing safe and cost-effective sentencing reform. One bill which has the potential to have huge budget savings as well as positive impacts on public safety is SB1068, which would give people incarcerated for non-violent offenses the opportunity to earn more credits toward early […]
Last week, the Arizona House Appropriations Committee announced it will not allow any public commentary during budget hearings. On Jan 28, the House banned protesting students from being physically present during the Committee meeting on education funding. At one point, the Sergeant At Arms closed the doors to the […]
In his State of the State speech, Governor Doug Ducey said: “And, if we’re serious about reducing recidivism – and reversing the growth of our prison population, let’s begin by building on the model already working in Pima County: a community corrections center, providing tough love and on-site […]
What a year! There’s never a dull moment when you are working for criminal justice reform in Arizona. We’d like to share with you just the highlights of some of our achievements from 2015: We added THREE new incredible staff people We passed sentencing reform legislation for the […]