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 / Modified feb 3, 2016 4:38 a.m.

Corrections Budget Calls for 1,000 New State Prison Beds

Prison overcrowding is a topic of discussion with Senate Appropriations Committee members
by Christopher Conover

021512 Private Prisons 617_347
AZPM Staff

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The $1.1 billion dollar corrections budget includes a request for 1,000 new prison beds. The current budget authorized 1,000 beds to be built in fiscal 2017, which begins in July.

Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said it sounds like state lawmakers have no choice but to approve the money for the new beds.

“If we didn’t do the thousand beds in '17 then we would have a 7,000 bed overcrowding situation in the prisons,” said Sen. Kavanagh

That number is based on Department of Corrections estimates of how many more inmates will enter the system.

The biggest need for prison beds in Arizona is for men in medium security prisons.

The state currently operates ten prisons. Seven private prisons also operate in Arizona.

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