By Howard Fischer
Mail | X: @azcapmedia

PHOENIX — Two Republican lawmakers are blasting Gov. Katie Hobbs for agreeing to some independent oversight of the prison system — but only after refusing to actually fund the program, something one of them compared to buying a car “and not putting anyone in the driver’s seat.”

The Democratic governor signed legislation earlier this week crafted by Sen. Shawnna Bolick and Rep. Walt Blackman to establish the state’s first-ever Independent Correctional Oversight Office. That agency would monitor the conditions of confinement as well as assess whether the Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry is complying with federal and state rules and the “best practices that relate to inmate health, safety, welfare and rehabilitation.”

Only thing is, the bill Hobbs signed contains no funds to hire a director or anyone at all to do that research.

The original version of Senate Bill 1507 included $1.5 million to get the agency started, with the intent of similar future funding. But Bolick said the governor’s office told her it would meet with a veto unless the state funding was withdrawn.

What that left was a new “corrections oversight fund” with no state dollars — but permission to accept any federal cash available and “private grants, gifts, contributions and devises to assist in carrying out the purpose” of the agency.

Blackman, who sought prison oversight for years, said what they got was a hollow victory.

“A law without funding is just a press release,” said the Snowflake Republican.

“If the governor truly supports oversight and reform, then she should have backed the resources needed to make this office work,” he continued. “Transparency can’t wait, and neither should the funding.”

Hobbs, for her part, insisted to Capitol Media Services she had no idea why the bill that reached her desk had no money to start or operate the office.
Bolick, however, said none of this should come as a surprise. The Phoenix Republican who made the comment about funding a driverless car, told Capitol Media Services the message to strip out the dollars was conveyed to her by Ben Henderson, the governor’s chief budget officer.

“The governor is selling the illusion of progress while withholding the tools the office needs to function,” Bolick said in a prepared statement. “Hobbs can’t claim credit for reform while actively preventing it from happening.”

But gubernatorial press aide Christian Slater said Bolick “is the only person engaging in political grandstanding.” And he accused the senator of “shameless partisan politics,” saying she “didn’t lift a finger on prison oversight” when Republican Doug Ducey was in office “until she could use it as a cudgel to attack a governor of a different political party.”

Bolick countered she has been active on prison issues for years.

And Blackman has a clear record on this issue. He first broached the idea in 2021 of an “ombudsman” to have some oversight of the prison system.
It has dealt not only with deaths and escapes but has been under federal court orders for years — dating back to before Hobbs was the state’s chief executive.

In fact, a judge concluded during the Ducey administration that medical care there was “plainly grossly inadequate” and that state officials have been “acting with deliberate indifference” to the substantial risk of harm to inmates.

That came after Judge Roslyn Silver fined the state — twice — for failing to live up to promises to do better.

There is a hearing set for next month to see whether the judge has had enough and is willing to grant a bid by the American Civil Liberties Union to have a federal receiver put in place to run the health care.

Hobbs was aware of problems within the prison system. In her first year in office, she formed a special panel to look at the state prison system with its $1.1 billion budget to house more than 35,000 inmates.

“We cannot deny there is an urgent need to provide transparency and accountability in Arizona’s corrections system,” she said in forming the panel.
The report members produced for her found a variety of issues ranging from meal quality and access to basic hygiene items to being able to call family and lawyers.

But a key takeaway was a recommendation from this temporary commission that there needs to be an independent agency — and one that is not part of the governor’s office.

“Whether she read those findings or not, I don’t know,” Blackman said Thursday. But he said it was clear the commission wanted a permanent oversight agency — and one “with teeth” that included the money to do the job.

The legislation crafted this year by Bolick was designed to do that, with the oversight agency part of the Auditor General’s Office. While the governor would get to appoint the director, that person would serve a five-year term — longer than any gubernatorial term — and could be removed by the governor only for neglect of duty, misconduct or the inability to perform duties.

Then there was that $1.5 million to get started. That’s the way the bill was approved by the full Senate on a 23-5 bipartisan margin. It also unanimously cleared the House Government Committee that Blackman chairs.

But both he and Bolick said the message from the governor was the measure was DOA with the funding. So when the measure came to the House floor, Blackman agreed to strip it out, which is how the bill cleared the chamber 46-10.

Hobbs, in her interview with Capitol Media Services, professed ignorance of why there were no dollars in the measure.

“That’s a very good question that I asked myself when I was getting briefed on the bill,” she said. “I don’t know why it got left out of this year’s budget.”
The governor said she is “supportive of as much transparency and oversight as possible.” And she noted the problems date back years.

But Hobbs also said she has “full confidence” in Ryan Thornell, whom she picked more than two years ago as the prison director, saying “he’s done really incredible, incredible work in the short time he’s been there to bring about really necessary reform,” even with the pending federal court hearing.
Slater, the governor’s press aide, said the comments by Bolick and Blackman are “deeply, deeply misleading.”

He pointed out Blackman mentioned during the House vote that the state funding in the original bill had been stripped and the oversight was to be funded from federal grants.

That’s true, Blackman said. But he said that’s telling only half the story, leaving out the part he and Bolick were told that was the only way to get Hobbs’ signature.

While the bill now mentions the use of federal dollars, Blackman called that unrealistic given there is no money to hire someone to get the agency operating.

“Who competes for those grants if there’s not a body to do that?” he asked.

Still, Blackman said the legal formation of an oversight panel, hollow as that may now be, could serve some purpose. He said it could convince Silver when she hears legal arguments next month that an outside receiver is unnecessary because the state is making some moves in the right direction.