Key Points:

• Deaths in Arizona prisons prompts lawmaker inquiry

• Two lawmakers demand information on department operations

• State GOP pushing for independent prison oversight agency

Another alleged homicide in a state prison prompted a renewed call for answers and prison oversight from Republicans in the Legislature. 

A triple murder at a Tucson prison complex in April and a growing list of confirmed homicides inside state prison walls since the beginning of last year have led lawmakers to continue to press the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry, for answers, push for independent oversight and mull over convening an ad hoc committee. 

“I am not letting it go,” Rep. Quang Nguyen, R-Prescott Valley, said. “I’m taking it very seriously.” 

According to the department, there have been eight confirmed homicides in state prisons this calendar year and 11 confirmed homicides since January 2024.  

Most recently, a death notification from the department alerted the public that Indalecio Garcia, 31, died at the Lewis complex on June 23. The Corrections Department could not confirm or deny whether the latest death was a homicide given an active investigation. 

However, in the wake of the latest death, Senate and House Republicans again sounded the alarm about the department and called on Gov. Katie Hobbs to address the need for oversight. 

“The longer we wait before we can get to the bottom of the gaps in security at our state prisons, the more lives that may be lost,” Sen. Kevin Payne, R-Peoria, said in a statement. 

Payne and Nguyen took the lead on inquiries into prison violence after inmate Ricky Waasenaar was alleged to have killed three inmates at the Tucson Prison Complex in April. What started as a probe into the incident eventually evolved into a broader examination of practices, culture, staffing and security in the state carceral system. 

The two legislators have sent multiple requests for information. And in the background of back-and-forths with the department, Nguyen said they had been speaking with former corrections employees, families of inmates and “whistleblowers.” 

In their latest letter, sent June 4, they asserted a right for both the public and Legislature to know what is happening within the state prison system, claiming the current environment suggests “nothing less than a disaster in your facilities.” 

The department has responded to each inquiry from the lawmakers and has shared information publicly. 

In the latest letter to lawmakers, corrections Director Ryan Thornell said the transformation to a better correctional system first requires resources, as hopefully illustrated by an on-the-ground look at current operations by lawmakers. 

He noted, though, that staff work in underfunded and undersupported facilities, in “stifling heat conditions,” all while being “significantly underpaid.” 

Thornell extended an invitation to tour state prisons, through which he said the lawmakers would see “staff’s perfect effort firsthand, in action, while also seeing their working conditions and the critical needs of the system.” 

He noted, too, the opportunity to hear from current employees, which he said would provide “a much different perspective than that of the former, disgruntled employees you’ve heard from.” 

Lawmakers are also considering the establishment of an ad hoc committee to hear all sides. 

On May 29, Sen. Shawnna Bolick, R-Phoenix, Rep. Walt Blackman, R-Snowflake, Nguyen and Sen. David Gowan, R-Sierra Vista, sent a letter to Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Steve Montenegro requesting a bipartisan ad hoc committee on security failures in the Corrections Department. 

The four lawmakers request subpoena power and full access to internal ADCRR incident reports, staff memos and contractor records, as well as public testimony from department leadership, frontline officers, medical staff and impacted families. 

Nguyen said he is still in the information-gathering stage. And beyond an ad hoc approach, lawmakers are still looking to enact long-term, independent oversight of the department. 

A bill poised to create an independent office to keep a watchful eye on the department, Senate Bill 1507 sponsored by Bolick, moved through the Legislature with widespread support but hit pushback from the governor’s office, preventing the bill and its attached $1.5 million appropriation from finding a spot in the state budget. 

The bill moved through the House Committee of the Whole, sans funding, on June 26, with a framework for seeking alternative funding and additional reporting provisions outlined in an amendment. 

“This office is not going to be political,” Bolick said. “It is supposed to really be a standalone, independent oversight of our prison system.”