PHOENIX — One of Governor Katie Hobbs' first Executive Orders when she took office last January was to create an Independent Prison Oversight Commission. Now, less than a year later, the Commission says it's "not well positioned" to do oversight.
For seven months, the Commission held meetings, visited two state prisons and talked with people incarcerated in Arizona, according to a preliminary report obtained by the 12News I-Team.
But the report, provided to the Governor's Office on Nov. 15, 2023, tells the Governor that the Commission needs to shift its mission. It reads that a volunteer commission is "not the ideal framework" for oversight work as it takes significant time.
The report also stated that “...the Commission recognizes that we are not well positioned to serve as an 'independent prison oversight'; it is recommended to eliminate the expectation of oversight.”
The Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry has faced scrutiny over the past few years, like a federal lawsuit over inadequate healthcare or other concerns like broken locks and staff shortages.
Governor Hobbs called for the creation of the Independent Prison Oversight Commission in January 2023.
The 11 members, made up of lawmakers, former incarcerated people and others, held their first meeting in April. They formed sub-committees focused on healthcare, staffing, facilities and prison programs.
In the report, the members wrote they had two prison visits.
The first was an informal tour of Perryville women's prison on Goodyear in July. The 12News I-Team exposed that some cell temperatures were hotter than 100 degrees that month, according to the prison's own records.
The Commission said its members were able to speak with women impacted by the heat and examine cell temperatures themselves.
The group also went to the Tucson prison in October and interviewed a few dozen incarcerated men with a structured questionnaire. The men detailed their concerns including issues ranging from quality of meals and access to hygiene products.
In the short term, the Commission says it wants to transition into a Governor’s Advisory Council to collaborate with the Governor’s office and Arizona’s corrections department and would better serve as a working group to study issues rather than an oversight body.
In the long term, the Commission wrote it can’t be independent while housed within the Governor’s office and wants to see “bi-partisan pathways” to create long-term solutions for the prison system.
"Governor Hobbs thanks the members of the IPOC for their steadfast efforts examining our prison system and commitment to improve it," Hobbs spokesperson Christian Slater wrote in an email statement. "She wants to build a prison system that keeps Arizonans, prison staff and the incarcerated population safe and looks forward to continued conversations with stakeholders to find the best path forward."
The 12News I-Team has tried to contact each member of the Commission, but at the time of this publication, none we've been able to reach have agreed to do an interview about their findings.
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