Locked Up Arizona: A look at the state of Arizona’s criminal justice system

[Lucinda F. Boyd]

Locked Up Arizona: A look at the state of Arizona’s criminal justice system

By Corban Carson, KTAR

Locked Up Arizona is a documentary that has been in the works for months.

I started working on this documentary in November.

But before you listen, here are some statistics you need to know from the Arizona Department of Corrections:

• Arizona has 16 state prisons, six of which are run by private companies.
• In those prisons live more than 48,000 inmates, 51 percent of whom are locked up for violent offenses.
• About 20 percent have had something violent occur in their past, which may or may not be related to their current charges.
• And nearly 28 percent, or almost 12,000, inmates are classified as non-violent.

For all this, Arizona taxpayers pay a whopping $1 billion annually.

So obviously we should start letting people out, right? Maybe, maybe not.

Before you get into different parts of what made up the documentary, also know that World Class Arizona with Pat McMahon discussed the topic with a roundtable.

You can listen to that here:

Locked Up Arizona: A look at the state of Arizona’s criminal justic...

By Corban Carson, KTAR

Arizona prisoners to access program for rehabilitation, reducing re... By Corban Carson, KTAR

Arizona prisoners to access program for rehabilitation, reducing recidivism

PHOENIX — Arizona prisoners will soon have access to a new program that is designed to help them succeed and reduce recidivism once they are released.

The Streets Don’t Love You Back is a “prevention and intervention” six-week program, said Lucinda Boyd, author of the program. It addresses issues such as substance abuse, negative decision making and anger management.

“For those that are in prison, they’re coming home,” she said. “And they need to have those success tools. A lot of people don’t have them — they’ve never been taught.”

Boyd said the program is just one stepping stone to criminal justice reform in the state.

“When you come out with a felony and you can’t get a job, you can’t get an apartment, you’re set up for failure,” she said. “So we want to try to help change that so that they can come out and succeed in life.”

The program seeks to help prisoners learn their skills, strengths and weaknesses and use them to set and achieve their goals. It will begin this month for prisoners at Eyman Prison in Florence.