Key Points: 

• Gang-related fight at state prison leaves inmates hospitalized

• Officials call incident isolated, deny staffing and classification failures

• Legislative oversight stalls as concerns persist around prison safety and policies

A mass altercation at a state prison has reignited concerns around inmate and staff safety, despite the corrections director’s assurances that it was an isolated incident. 

On April 26, a “gang-related dispute” stirred a multi-inmate fight across the Rynning unit at Arizona State Prison Complex Eyman in Florence. 

The incident, described as a “disturbance” by the department’s head and a “full-blown riot” by the executive director of the Arizona Correctional Peace Officers Association, sent at least ten inmates to the hospital and left one inmate in critical condition. 

In the aftermath, another wave of questions crashed around correctional staffing levels and custody classification policies — a conversation already ignited more than a year ago after a triple homicide spurred legislative ad hoc committees dedicated to studying the escalating violence inside state prisons. 

Ryan Thornell, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, maintains neither staffing nor classification policies played into the problem and claimed it to be a “very isolated incident.” 

But advocates contend failure to manage gang populations is part and parcel of the custody classification problem, and a representative for correctional officers claims the systemwide strain on staff persists. 

All the while, legislative efforts to investigate or stir any policy change in the prison system seemed to have ground to a halt when the committee recessed last August, though one lawmaker said he was currently requesting more information from the department. 

“They disappeared. It was a scam,” Carlos Garcia, executive director of the Arizona Correctional Peace Officers Association, said. “We’re constituents, and we’re watching you. We won’t forget this.” 

On the afternoon of April 26, a fight between inmates broke out in the kitchen and spilled out into multiple areas of the Rynning unit in Florence. The department classified the incident as a “gang-related dispute.”

In remarks to the press on April 28, Thornell could not say definitively how many people were involved, but reported one-third of those impacted had returned to custody while ten still remained in the hospital. He said nine of those hospitalized were in stable condition while one remained in critical condition. 

No staff members were injured during the altercation. 

“Staff responded very well to the incident, and it was a very isolated incident,” Thornell said. “The staff response was very quick … and I know it was because of their response that staff did not get injured, and we were able to resolve it.”

And despite the high volume of inmates involved, Thornell sparred with classifying the incident as a “riot.” 

“It started out as a fight and it continued as a fight and it ended as a fight,” Thornell said. “At no time was the motivation to destroy state property. At no time were staff targeted. At no time was there any sort of instigation against anybody other than fighting back and forth.”

Thornell added his belief that neither staffing nor classification policies played a role in the altercation. 

“We know the checklist of concerns that people are going to bring up, even if they’re not applicable to the situation,” Thornell said. 

On the staffing front, Thornell claimed staffing levels are at “historic highs,” while correctional officer vacancy levels remain at “historic lows,” with a statewide level less than 13%. 

Per a March 2026 report, correctional officer vacancies across the board do continue to fall, with 795 reported last month compared to 1,117 the year prior. 

But per the latest correctional staffing reports submitted to the court in Jensen v Thornell, the department reports Eyman as having a higher vacancy rate than its counterparts, with a 27.16% vacancy rate. 

As for policies on moving higher risk inmates down to lower security units, Thornell noted the entire situation transpired in a close custody yard with close custody inmates — a traditionally higher risk population. 

“I don’t have any concerns related to that,” Thornell said. “So I’m very confident who was there and that they were housed appropriately.” 

But Garcia, and Donna Hamm, executive director of Middle Ground Prison Reform, sparred with that claim. 

Garcia and Hamm noted the department’s own policy recommending gang members be moved into alternative housing if it is determined they are “actively involved in disruptive or criminal group activities.” 

The two contended that if the department knew there were gang members in the yard, especially those with the capacity for conflict, they should have been separated or placed into higher custody. 

“They threw themselves under a bus by exposing that there’s gang members on yards where they don’t belong,” Garcia said. 

Classification and custody overrides, in which an inmate is moved into a less restrictive housing tier, took center stage at a legislative hearing led by Rep. Quang Nguyen and Sen. Kevin Payne, amid claims that Ricky Wassenaar, a man serving 16 life sentences, was placed at a lower custody level, resulting in the murder of three inmates. 

Thornell said he had been working with the ad hoc committee to address classification concerns. Though since the lawmakers adjourned the single hearing in August, there has been little in the way of public or policy follow up. 

Payne did not respond to requests for comment. Nguyen said he and Payne were “currently requesting more information from the director,” but noted lawmakers were caught up in the budget. 

Garcia said he was previously in contact with lawmakers but said it did not result in any change.

“They were emailing with me, saying, Garcia, we can’t tolerate this. And then they disappeared,” Garcia said. 

As for solutions, both Hamm and Garcia pushed for a more forthright response from the director.

“I want a director that can say what he’s going to say, and have the tenacity and the bravery to say, ‘I know some things that we do, you’re not going to agree with, but I did it, and this is the way it is,’” Garcia said. “That’s all I ask. If you can do that, we have ourselves a director, because that’s what staff want, but we don’t have one. We haven’t had one in years.”

Hamm noted that fear still persists among inmates and that family members only grow more anxious with each instance of violence. 

“Not only the inmates, but the staff, should not (have to) worry about their own safety,” Hamm said. “Throughout the Department of Corrections, people are terrified for their own safety because of what has been going on, not just on Sunday, but routinely.”