Arizona Gov. Kathy Hobbs Creates Commission to Study State’s Prison Problems

Gov. Kathy Hobbs on Wednesday announced the creation of a commission to look into problems in Arizona’s prisons, including staffing and medical care offered to those behind bars.

The creation of the commission by Hobbs, Arizona’s first Democratic governor since 2009, comes just days after she ordered a separate review of the state’s death penalty protocols.

“We cannot deny that there is an urgent need for transparency and accountability in the Arizona correctional system,” Hobbs said.

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The commission will consider the access of prisoners to food, medicine and hygiene items; whether the level of prison staffing is adequate; prison conditions, including security measures and overcrowding; rehabilitation and education programs for prisoners; and access to medical and mental health care and drug treatment programs.

David Fathy, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing Arizona prisoners who have challenged the quality of medical care behind bars, welcomed the creation of the commission.

He said previous governors had a hands-off approach to prisons. “They were suspended and did not participate,” Fathi said. “Gov. Hobbs seems to be charting a very different course.”

Last summer, a federal judge ruled that Arizona violated the rights of inmates in state prisons by providing them with inadequate medical care, and that state errors led to preventable deaths.

Before the trial began in the case, U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver rejected the settlement because the state failed to deliver on many of the improvements it had promised to improve prisoner care. She concluded that $2.5 million for contempt of court fines against the state did not motivate him to comply with the settlement.

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In late 2021, then-Director of Corrections David Shinn testified that inmates often have more access to healthcare services than people who are not incarcerated, prompting Silver to later say that the claim is “completely out of touch with reality”.

The panel will include four state legislators, two people who have previously served time in Arizona prisons, a doctor, a mental health professional, and a family member of someone who has served at least three years in Arizona prisons.

Last week, Hobbs ordered a review of Arizona’s execution protocols, causing Chris Mayes, the state’s new Democratic Attorney General, to delay receiving court orders to execute prisoners until the examination is complete.

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The revision was announced just days after the governor named Ryan Thornell, a Maine prison officer, as the new Director of Corrections for Arizona.

The review will examine, among other things, the public procurement process for lethal injection drugs and lethal gases, execution procedures, news organizations’ access to executions, and the training of personnel to carry out executions.

There are now 110 death row inmates in Arizona. The state carried out three executions last year after a nearly eight-year hiatus spurred by criticism that the 2014 execution was a failure and difficulties in obtaining lethal injection drugs.