{"id":48438,"date":"2025-07-08T10:28:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T10:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/48438\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T10:28:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T10:28:12","slug":"new-arizona-prison-oversight-office-faces-funding-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/48438\/","title":{"rendered":"New Arizona prison oversight office faces funding fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"New New prison oversight office lacks funding in Arizona<\/a> <\/p>\n

A new independent oversight office for Arizona prisons, signed into law by Gov. Katie Hobbs, faces significant challenges as its specific funding was removed from the state budget. FOX 10’s Nicole Krasean has the details.<\/p>\n

PHOENIX<\/strong> – A new office, signed into law by Gov. Katie Hobbs, aims to bring reform and transparency to Arizona’s prison system but is already facing challenges.<\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

The legislation creating this independent oversight office was stripped of specific funding before it reached Hobbs’ desk. Some lawmakers contend that without financial backing, the office exists only on paper.<\/p>\n

“It’s great to see Arizona leading the way on correctional oversight,” said Lauren Krisai, executive director of the Justice Action Network<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Prison reform advocates say the creation of an Independent Correctional Oversight Office through Senate Bill 1507<\/strong><\/a> helps address heightened scrutiny of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry (ADCRR) amid reports and videos of inmate violence<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Obviously Director Thornell has also been ramping up his internal oversight transparency and accountability measures, and this bill really complements those internal efforts,” Krisai said.<\/p>\n

The new office will monitor conditions in prisons and ADCRR’s compliance with policies. It will also provide a hotline for employee and inmate complaints.<\/p>\n

“Giving inmates the opportunity to file a complaint with this office, the office has the opportunity to investigate it and see what’s really going on, and maybe they uncover something that the department doesn’t even know is happening,” Krisai explained.<\/p>\n

\"Arizona <\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

The significant question now is how the office will be funded. $1.5 million in appropriations was removed from the final state budget bill.<\/p>\n

Sen. Shawnna Bolick, the bill’s author, released a statement saying in part, “Signing a bill and refusing to fund it is like buying a car and not putting anyone in the driver’s seat.”<\/p>\n

Rep. Walt Blackman, a vocal supporter of prison reform, stated, “A law without funding is just a press release.”<\/p>\n

“The amendment that was added said that the office can be funded with legislative appropriations of other kinds, federal grants, private dollars, but I don’t know if a source has actually been identified, if there is going to be a way to fund the office,” Krisai said. “I mean without money it’s really not functional.”<\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

FOX 10 has renewed a request for a sit-down interview with the governor regarding this legislation, which she previously declined. We also reached out to ADCRR for comment on this bill and are awaiting a response.<\/p>\n

\"Ryan Crime and Public Safety<\/a>Arizona Politics<\/a>News<\/a>Arizona<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New prison oversight office lacks funding in Arizona A new independent oversight office for Arizona prisons, signed into…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":48439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,37069,6082,50,1589,80,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-48438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-az-politics","12":"tag-crime-publicsafety","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-phoenix","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114817145495957068","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}