Arizona legislator continues push for $1.5M to fund independent prison oversight office

PHOENIX — Six months after a bill that created an independent prison oversight office was signed into law, the office remains unfunded, and one state lawmaker is working to fix that.

Republican state Rep. Walt Blackman, who represents District 6, has introduced HB 2063. The bill calls for $1.5 million to be allocated from the 2026-2027 general fund in order to operate the Independent Correctional Oversight Office, which would oversee the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry (ADCRR).

The office was created by SB 1507, which Gov. Katie Hobbs signed into law in July 2025. However, the funding needed to run the office was not included in the state budget.

Blackman told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News on Thursday that he still doesn’t understand why the office is not up and running.

“Why didn’t they fund it? I got to tell you, I don’t know other than the fact that they weren’t serious about this piece of legislation,” he said. “If it’s not funded, we’re going to see continued issues with our (Department of Corrections).”

Why was independent prison oversight office created?

In 2023, Hobbs issued an executive order creating an independent prison oversight commission, of which Blackman was a part. The focus of the commission included evaluations of mental health, medical and drug treatment programs for inmates, along with evaluating the ability of inmates to communicate with family members.

In its final report in November 2023, the commission, composed of volunteers, found that significant time and a dedicated staff would be necessary to truly oversee ADCRR, prompting SB 1507.

Once funded, the new office would work to address several systemic issues that ADCRR continues to deal with.

“We’re talking health care. We’re talking training for the staff. We are talking the facilities (needing) improvement. We’re talking the amount of personnel that are actually working day-to-day with the inmates that are there,” Blackman said. “So, there is a lot of problems that this office can look at.”

The legislator added that he believes those issues need to be addressed as soon as possible.

“This is a decade of issues that we’ve had under Republican control and under Democrat control,” he said. “It’s not going to get fixed if we don’t do it now.”

What could happen if independent prison oversight office is not funded?

Blackman added that if the oversight office does not receive its necessary funding, then the federal government could step in and take over.

“The federal government is looking at us, well, it’s not fixed, it’s broken, so we may need to come in and show you what right looks like,” he said. “And we don’t want to do that.”

Federal oversight could lead to a large increase in ADCRR’s budget, which currently stands at nearly $2 billion, the legislator said.

Arizona’s 2026 legislative session begins Jan. 12.

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