Key Points 

• Prison healthcare funding in state budget falls short of court requirements

• Oversight office goes unfunded again, delaying prison accountability efforts

• Advocates warn delays in full funding risk harm to inmates, staff, hinder reforms

Funding critical to improving the state prison system fell short in the state budget this session. 

The budget — negotiated and agreed upon by the Legislature and Gov. Katie Hobbs — included only about half of the funding necessary to comply with healthcare staffing requirements laid out in a long-running class action lawsuit against the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry. 

The final proposal also left out $1.5 million in funding necessary to create a functioning Independent Corrections Oversight Office. 

The lackluster appropriation is likely to stall both implementation and compliance with a year-old court order and could stir concerns with counsel for incarcerated people and the federal judge going forward.

And, on the oversight front, advocates must now look to federal funding, grants, gifts and contributions to support operations, though they continue to stress the state’s obligation to fund and make functional the oversight mechanism it created. 

“The state should be taking care of its investments,” Estrella López, senior state policy manager for the Justice Action Network, said. “Both in the form of people and in the form of dollars.”

For about 14 years, the department has contended with class action litigation challenging unconstitutional healthcare and conditions inside state prisons. And for more than a year now, an order from a federal judge has required hefty increases in the department’s healthcare workforce. 

To avoid further contempt sanctions from the court, the department must increase its healthcare workforce by 557 employees — including 142 licensed practical nurses, 128 psychological associates, 115 behavioral health technicians, 74 emergency response technicians, 70 registered nurses, 22 psychiatrists, 20 staff physicians and 15 psychologists. 

In its FY2027 budget proposal, the department estimated the hiring blitz would require more than $100 million more per year. And in Hobbs’ executive budget proposal, she requested $118.3 million to cover the cost of staffing increases at the department. 

But, at the end of budget negotiations, the state only sent $55.8 million to the department to cover injunction costs. 

“Obviously something is better than nothing in terms of the appropriations,” Corene Kendrick, deputy director for the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project, said. “But it’s still very concerning that it appears that at most they’re doing a half measure to comply with the federal court’s order that’s been in effect for over a year.” 

Hobbs said the half funding “has been a source of frustration.” 

“We inherited this lawsuit that had been ignored for years and years, and we’re trying to fix overnight what should have been in the works in progress already, so clearly the judge is frustrated with the progress,” Hobbs said. “We are playing catch up to try to meet the needs of the court in this, and to treat prisoners according to the Constitution.” 

She continued, “This is what we are able to negotiate in the budget, we’re continuing to work to meet the conditions of the court and this lawsuit.” 

Kendrick said compliance is going “very slowly.” 

“In the meantime, thousands of incarcerated people are at serious risk of harm and are continuing to experience unnecessary and preventable injuries and deaths due to the failure to have an adequate number of health care staff in the prisons across the state,” Kendrick said. 

As eyes stay on the department in the court, criminal justice reform advocates continue to push for the state to set up an office solely dedicated to reporting on and resolving complaints from state prisons. 

Last session, Sen. Shawnna Bolick, R-Phoenix, pushed through and Hobbs signed Senate Bill 1507 to create the Independent Correctional Oversight Office. 

The aim was to create another mechanism to check operations, conditions and budgets at the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry and field complaints from inmates and staff. 

Under the law, the office is required to submit reports detailing complaints received and resolved, deaths, suicides, drug overdoes, lockdowns, housing assignment, classifications, staffing and reentry programs. 

But, to get started, the office needed $1.5 million. And so far, across two budget negotiations, the state has failed to come up with the cash necessary to actualize oversight. 

Lawmakers continued to show bipartisan support for an appropriation through this session and through the budget process, pointing to near unanimous approval for the funding from both chambers. 

“It’s something we all really wanted,” Sen. Mitzi Epstein, D-Tempe, said in a Joint Appropriations Committee meeting. “It’s not a partisan problem.” 

Rep. Walt Blackman, R-Snowflake, who sponsored the $1.5 million appropriation bill for the office, said he did not believe the oversight office’s absence from the budget was a legislative problem. 

“I believe it’s maybe the governor,” Blackman said. “She didn’t sign it last session either.” 

Epstein retorted against speaking for the governor, and Rep. Oscar De Los Santos, D-Laveen, was quick to point out that the Republican budget vetoed by Hobbs also failed to include oversight funding. 

Hobbs declined to get into the details of budget negotiations but pointed out the same. 

“This was a negotiated, agreed upon budget,” Hobbs said. “The partisan budget that the Republicans sent me last month also did not include this funding.” 

López said the omission was not necessarily a surprise but was very much a disappointment. 

“You take a look at what is appropriated for the (department). It’s not an exaggeration to call it pennies,” López said. 

When the bill passed last session but failed to secure funding in the budget, Bolick added a last minute provision allowing the office to use alternate funding pathways, with a greenlight to take in federal funding, private grants, gifts and contributions to support operations. 

López said the next step will be looking into additional funding sources. 

“I’m confident that this will get funded, it’s just a matter of how many more failures in the system, how many more lives impacted that could have been averted if there had been another set of eyes on this,” López said.