Key Points:
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Lawmakers probe prison violence, demand transparency, more answers
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Former staff cite understaffing, hostile work environments, unsafe custody levels
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Director defends reforms, but promises conversation with legislators
After an ad hoc committee dredged out testimony on assaults, custody levels and staffing at state prisons, lawmakers still have questions and outstanding inquiries for the Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry.
The two committee chairs plan to keep probing and meeting with the department as part of a continued effort to address and quell a sweep of violence in state prisons but are not completely satisfied with answers and operations now, especially as they wait on outstanding public records requests.
“What do we need to do to follow up? What areas do we need to press harder on? Do we need to dig deeper? We’ll know more when we start getting some of those reports,” Sen. Kevin Payne, co-chair of the committee, said.
On Aug. 26, Payne and his co-committee chair Rep. Quang Nguyen called four former department employees, two reform advocates, and corrections Director Ryan Thornell to the stand to address an uptick in assaults and homicides inside prison walls.
The hearing itself revolved around recurring themes that included custody classification, inmate and staff safety, understaffing, and of course, the catalyst for the ad hoc, Ricky Wassenaar, the sole, and confessed, suspect in the murder of three inmates at the Arizona State Prison Complex in early April.
In the past year, the Department of Corrections reported nine homicides, as opposed to two from the year prior, including the triple murder of three inmates in the Arizona State Prison Complex Tucson.
Inmate assaults climbed from 1,968 to 3,054 from FY2024 to FY2025, and staff assaults jumped from 563 to 716 in the same time.
Lawmakers first heard from John Fabricius, executive director of Praxis Initiative, formerly Arizonans for Transparency and Accountability in Corrections, as well as Donna Hamm, of Middle Ground Prison Reform. The two testified to a long ringing alarm bell on the inmate custody classification system and the existing and potential threats to staff and inmates.
Then, the committee listened to testimony from four former employees of the department with more than a century of experience among them.
Travis Scott, a retired corrections officer and deputy warden, has worked in the department for the past 30 years and spoke about staff turnover from those just starting and high level leadership.
Rodney Carr, a former corrections officer and warden who served in the department from 1989 to 2024, reported the shifting around of custody classification left low custody inmates without proper observation, leading to inmate-on-inmate assaults.
Carr also spoke to staffing shortages, claiming to have worked in a unit designed to have 30 staff members but operating with only 13. Carr said staff were “overworked” and “held to a much higher standard than what is feasible.”
Staci Ibarra, former corrections officer and warden of the Eyman complex, said there had been “unprecedented levels of violences.” From July 2024 to May 2025, Ibarra reported 126 overdose deaths, 11 homicides — though the department reports nine — six suicides, and 12 deaths still pending cause.
“These numbers reflect a serious breakdown on structured physical and sound security practices,” Ibarra said.
Ibarra ran through a list of concerns, including declining high and low level staff, a hostile work environment and low pay. She also cited “often suppressed or sanitized” information from the department.
“Without people reporting, neither the state leaders nor the public can accurately assess the safety and operations of Arizona prisons,” Ibarra said. “Corrections is above all a people business. Staff must trust their leaders. And inmates must believe the system is fair, structured and safe. Right now, both trust and safety are eroding.”
Ibarra urged the committee to demand accurate reporting of recent incidents and assaults.
Thornell stepped to the stand to discuss the work to improve the Department of Corrections since the start of his tenure, calling the claims of former employees the “minority.”
Thornell said many employees were happy with the new direction of the department and the changes that have come in line with a strategic vision to “reimagine corrections.”
He said the department had increased staffing levels, recruitment and retention and brought the number of correctional officer vacancies from above 1,500 to less than 1,000. Thornell noted at Lewis Prison, a complex with a “notorious reputation,” given a high number of close custody yards, the department had lowered the vacancy rate from 34.82% to 8.59%.
Thornell said they had built out additional curriculum for correction officers and added six more weeks of training, including on-the-job training.
Although the department is making strides, Thornell acknowledged that staffing remains an ongoing concern, and not all complexes are experiencing the same success with hiring. He mentioned problems recruiting in Florence and in Tucson.
As for custody classification, Thornell stood by the current process and said the industry standard was not to keep inmates in maximum custody for prolonged or indefinite periods of time.
He pointed, too, to a provision of the court injunction in Jensen v. Thornell which requires inmates to be reviewed every 30 days and every 60 days for recommendations on how to progress from maximum custody into close custody and finally to the general population.
Thornell answered specific questions about Wassenaar, too.
Wassenaar, an inmate serving 16 consecutive life sentences who had previously orchestrated a 15-day hostage standoff, is the sole suspect in the murder of three inmates. Wassenaar was under close custody, a step down from the maximum security classification.
Thornell addressed Wassenaar in particular, stating that the recommendation from the custody classification was to place him in medium custody. However, the prison overrode the decision and put him in close custody, a step above the recommendation but below the highest level.
Overall, Thornell said the department already had a team actively working on reviewing the classification process, and he said he would be willing to sit down with lawmakers to delve deeper into all the elements underpinning the spike in violence.
“I would be happy to sit down and peel back all of the pieces that contribute to these numbers and the factors of the inmates that contribute to this whether it’s classification related, whether it’s substance use related, whether it’s gang related,” Thornell said. “Whatever the different complexities are, I don’t think it’s as simple as saying it’s a classification issue.”
Following the ad hoc committee, Nguyen and Payne plan to debrief and continue conversations with the Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, with the goal of issuing a report in the coming months.
In reflecting on the hearing on Aug. 26, Nguyen said he still did not get all of his questions answered, but still called the committee “extremely productive” in getting the problems out in the open.
He said he didn’t plan for another ad hoc hearing in the future, but instead wanted to pivot the conversation with Thornell out of the public spotlight, for now at least.
Although he is hopeful about continuing to work with Thornell and the department going forward, Nguyen still expressed frustration with waiting for a response to public records requests.
Payne and Nguyen have asked for a long list of records, including mortality review reports, maximum custody capacity and use, significant incident reports and statistics on inmate overdoses, deaths, suicides and staff assaults.
The department responded to each inquiry with either an answer or a referral to the public records department.
“Why cause the delay with the Legislature when we’re the actual oversight?” Nguyen said. “Why not go ahead and give us the information? That’s the part I’m a little bit frustrated about.”
Payne echoed the same.
“Draw the black line through it and hand them over,” Payne said.