House Democrats on special session, prison security

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

H/t Arizona Guardian

Attorney General Terry Goddard and Democratic lawmakers are blasting Republican Gov. Jan Brewer over public safety. Dems blast Brewer in wake of escape:

Even members of Brewer's own party said Monday they were concerned about what led to the escape of three violent inmates from a privately run facility near Kingman on July 30. Some are suggesting legislative hearings to investigate what went wrong.

"We need to have a little more confidence in our prison system," said Rep. Adam Driggs, R-Phoenix. "I think the Legislature needs the answers."

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In two separate news conferences Monday, Goddard and House Democrats criticized Brewer and the Republican-controlled Legislature for weakening the Department of Corrections by axing $67 million from its budget this past year.

They also sought to spotlight the governor's advocacy of, and her ties to, private-prison operators, which include lobbying connections and campaign donations. "Our over-reliance on private, for-profit prisons combined with excessive budget cuts . . . and the improper assignment of violent criminals to low-security prisons contributed to making these escapes possible," Goddard said.

Goddard called on Brewer to convene a special legislative session to look at prison safety, conduct a security review of all of Arizona's private prisons and immediately reassign any violent inmates currently being housed in minimum- or medium-security prisons.

The Arizona Republic agreed in an editorial on Tuesday. State must take a hard look at prison issues:

Arizonans want two questions answered: How did three violent inmates break out of a privately run prison? And what can prevent it from happening again?

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The case calls for a thorough, nonpartisan review without preconceptions. That would be a challenge under the best of circumstances. It's doubly hard in the middle of a particularly heated election season.

But with Arizona's growing inmate population and new private facilities in the works, we must have answers.

The prison population jumped 32 percent from fiscal 2001 to 2009, to nearly 40,000. The state sought bids this year on a contract to house 5,000 more.

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The escapes add to the debate over the role and oversight of private prisons in Arizona.

A related issue is whether Arizona should restrict the number of out-of-state and federal felons imprisoned in private facilities. In 2008, the head count topped 9,000 – more than double the number of Arizona prisoners under private oversight at the time.

There have been calls in the past for more regulation of the private-prison industry in Arizona.

After two convicted killers escaped from a private prison in Florence in 2007, then-Sen. Robert Blendu, a Litchfield Park Republican, introduced a bill that would have required private prisons to share information with state officials and barred them from bringing dangerous felons to Arizona.

The positions on the bill, which didn't pass, show the complexity of the overall issue.

Blendu was a private-prisoner supporter, but he worried that the legal framework hadn't kept up. Across the aisle, one of the Democratic legislators at the time, Rep. Pete Rios of Hayden, had gone from opposing private prisons to defending them as a source of jobs in his economically stressed district.

Whether through the action of the governor or the Legislature, a respected panel of leaders and experts must convene for a thorough analysis of how such dangerous convicts could get away so easily.