As you cast your votes this election year, let’s remember our fellow community members who can’t--not because they are unwilling to participate but because of anti-democratic processes that send the message that their voices don’t count. Commit to change, not just for them, but for our country. Because when every voice is heard, that’s when true democracy exists.

The only difference between her and the typical focused, stern female marketing executive adorned in a pantsuit most people imagine is that Ochoa wears orange scrubs and attends conference calls from inside Perryville prison complex in Goodyear.

In practice this requires that states “Fundamentally change the purpose of supervision from punishing failure to promoting success. The goal should be to help people repair the harm they have caused and become self-sufficient, law-abiding citizens, rather than simply enforcing rules set by courts and parole boards, catching violators and imposing penalties, including incarceration.”

Gov. Doug Ducey’s announcement in his State of the State Address that he would be shutting down the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence astounded criminal justice advocates and the town itself.

The Arizona Department of Corrections was sent back to the negotiating table after it failed to comply with a previous settlement requiring better health care, a judge said.

Maybe it’s time for prosecutors like Barbara LaWall to stop defending the status quo and embrace a more effective justice system based on data and evidence. It has worked in Texas, Utah, Georgia and 29 other states. And unless Arizonans are somehow more crime-prone than the rest of the country, it will work here, too.

I was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives on a promise that I would fight for individual liberty and hold those who break our laws accountable, and my fight to reform Arizona’s criminal justice system is consistent with those principles.

A Tucson man who spent 42 years in prison on 28 arson-related murder counts that were later vacated cannot now collect damages for the years he spent behind bars, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

In a recent guest opinion, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery peddles a grab bag of outdated and weak measures – some over 40 years old – to claim that Arizona leads in criminal justice reform. If only.

Arizona’s criminal justice system is not perfect. There is always room for improvement in any system, and I and other prosecutors remain willing to engage in productive discussions and initiatives to improve criminal justice system outcomes for crime victims, the public we serve, and defendants to reduce recidivism.