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April 29, 2007
Tuscon Citizen: It's only fair: AZ inmates should be in AZ prisons
Our Opinion: It's only fair: Az inmates should be in Az prisons
Published: 04.28.2007
There's a lesson to be learned from Tuesday's riot by Arizona convicts transferred to a privately run Indiana prison:
Don't house convicts in prisons across the country from their loved ones. It is bad corrections policy.
The inmates were sent to the Indiana prison by the Arizona Department of Corrections - but that agency isn't at fault.
The state DOC is responsible only for incarcerating inmates sent to it in facilities provided by legislative appropriations.
Quite simply, there are too many inmates and not enough cells.
Over the past year, the number of inmates in Arizona prisons has grown by about 162 per month. That exacerbated a bed shortage that already was severe.
At the beginning of the current fiscal year, Arizona had 30,500 beds for almost 35,000 inmates.
It doesn't take a prison expert to see that's going to be a problem.
The Legislature's solution was to stage a bid competition between the Department of Corrections and private companies to see who could build and operate 3,000 more prison beds for less money.
The bids were accepted in March, but all were rejected. So there is no plan for building more space for Arizona inmates. By the end of 2007, there probably will be 37,000 inmates in a system with 31,500 beds.
The DOC did the only thing it could do: It looked for prisons anywhere that were willing to house Arizona inmates for a price.
It found takers in several states - including Indiana.
It's important to know that the more than 600 Arizona inmates who have been sent to the medium-security corrections facility in New Castle, Ind., since March were selected for transfer because they had no record of disciplinary problems or violence.
But in the view of the inmates, their good behavior is being punished rather than rewarded, according to Donna Leone Hamm, a prison rights advocate.
"The higher-custody inmates, the ones that caused trouble inside the prison system, are not the ones that are being moved," she told The Associated Press.
It's unlikely that a family member from Arizona is going to make a weekly visit to Indiana. The move deprives prisoners of their only support system.
Indiana House Speaker Patrick Bauer told The AP: "These prisoners also have friends and families (back in Arizona). I think it was inevitable. I think it was a bad idea from . . . a social point of view."
He's right. It was a terrible idea.
The blame falls squarely on legislators who like to pass tough laws and mandatory sentences, then refuse to pay for space to house the men and women sent to prison as a result.
Arizona has a moral responsibility to house Arizona inmates in Arizona prisons - not to ship them around the nation. The riot in a prison more than 1,500 miles from Arizona was the predictable result.
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/altss/printstory/opinion/49820
Posted by lois at April 29, 2007 11:52 AM