Criminal Justice
Corrections
Arizona’s prison system, operated by the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC), is the least visible component of the state’s criminal justice system but hardly the least important. Its 10 prisons (ADC also supervises six privately run prisons) hold more than 40,000 inmates—which is about 4,000 more than its supply of regular beds.
Arizona’s prison population, like that of most states, has increased sharply during the past 25 years; the state has one of the highest incarceration rates (number of inmates per 100,000 state residents) in the country. A current problem of particular urgency is how to deal with the more than 1,600 inmates who are released each month. Many of these are low-income individuals with little education and few skills and are thus ill-equipped to find adequate employment and housing.
