Goddard says Arizona too easy on private prisons

The presumptive Democratic nominee for governor, Attorney General Terry Goddard, says the public is at risk in Arizona because of what he calls “a climate of permissiveness” toward private prisons.

Goddard directed that criticism at the Republican-led Legislature and Republican Gov. Jan Brewer after Brewer’s corrections director said his department’s investigation found numerous security flaws at a Kingman prison where three convicts escaped July 30.

Goddard said he would have already fired the company that operates the prison on grounds that it “clearly breached the public trust.”

Goddard is unopposed in Tuesday’s primary.