Gov. Doug Ducey won't commit to ask the Legislature for all the dollars his departing head of the state prison system says are necessary to deal with the "critical public safety crisis.''

In his parting words before retirement, the director of Arizona’s prisons gave a dire warning to the governor about the crisis felt at prisons across the state.

Inmates have asked a federal judge to take over health care operations in all state-run prisons in Arizona and appoint an official to run medical and mental health services due to the state's repeated failure to improve the care.

A recent panel on prison conditions featured two state representatives, an adviser to Gov. Doug Ducey, a pair of former prisoners, the director of inmate programs at the Arizona Department of Corrections – and a beauty queen.

Charles Ryan, the embattled longtime director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, is retiring amid calls for his ouster.

A 2020 legislative effort to expand early release opportunities for prisoners kicked off Monday morning with exhortations from advocates to think beyond incremental steps and warnings from the Arizona Department of Corrections that it doesn’t have the budget or staff to handle big changes.

Mark Brnovich may want Arizona to resume the execution of its death row inmates, but a spokesman for the attorney general said whether that occurs is up to the executive branch.

Now that the federal government plans to resume capital punishment, Arizona should as well, according to Attorney General Mark Brnovich.

The Arizona Department of Corrections received approval Tuesday to start the first phase of a nearly $46 million plan to replace cell door locks, fire alarms and air conditioning at two state prisons.

The state of Arizona wants a judge to hold off on her threat to order $1.6 million in additional contempt-of-court fines against the state for failing to adequately follow through on its promises to improve health care for its 33,000 prisoners.