State Sen. Kevin Payne, R-Peoria, told The Center Square he was not impressed by the letter he received from the Arizona prison system about safety concerns after a series of inmate homicides.
He called the department’s response “not all that good.”
Last week, the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry responded to a letter Payne sent the department on June 4. The state senator inquired about the conditions at ADCRR correctional facilities. During fiscal year 2025, 10 homicides have occurred. This number would increase to 11 if inmate Indalecio Garcia’s death is proven to be a homicide.
In the letter, ADCRR responded to 12 questions that Payne sent to the department. For six of these questions, ADCRR said Payne’s request was being sent to the corrections department's public records team.
The senator said he thinks the department did that because he requested a lot of information. However, he noted ADCRR could have sent the public records requests sooner. Payne said he thinks the department waited until June 25, the deadline given by the state senator for the department to respond to his letter.
In August 2023, when the state began tracking MAT, 692 inmates were receiving this treatment. In May 2025, 6,820 inmates were participating in MAT.
Payne said correctional officers told him that inmates are not swallowing their medications in front of them, but instead they are “cheeking” them. The state senator said inmates who are doing this are either selling them to other inmates or saving up enough medication to get high from it.
Going forward, Payne said a Senate committee will continue to gather more information and analyze the data provided by the ADCRR to the committee. The state senator is the chairman of this ad hoc committee.
Payne said the ADCRR only answered a couple of questions, and the committee is still waiting on the data for the rest of the questions.
