The Arizona State Prison Complex in Yuma has a program which allows inmates with artistic abilities to create something for the community. Recently they built a replica of the Yuma Territorial Prison as a float of the Silver Spur Rodeo Parade. “Some of the inmates have a very artistic ability so that’s how we select them and we also have different programs through the Arizona Department of Corrections that help us identify inmates," warden, Carla Hacker-Agnew told News 11. She also said it helps inmates learn different skills that they can utilize once they are released back out into society.
The Humane Society of Yuma has a long standing partnership with the Arizona Department of Corrections. The Humane Society of Yuma employs inmates Monday through Friday to clean the facility, do laundry, clean dishes and to feed the animals. This program is essential to the Humane Society of Yuma; the inmates provide labor that would otherwise be too costly to employ at a regular rate. “Being a non-profit, it would be practically impossible for us to actually hire this many people. The inmate program allows us to keep our employee costs down while never jeopardizing the care of the animals we house” says Annette Lagunas, Executive Director of the Humane Society of Yuma.
The Sonoita community came together today to show their appreciation for the Arizona Department of Corrections inmate work crews. The work crews clean and maintain the Santa Cruz County fair grounds and court house. Judge Keith Barth started the event as a way to show the inmates that the community appreciates the extra effort they put into serving on a work crew. Judge Barth says that in addition to serving their time, the inmates are taking the extra step to give back to the community while they pay their debt to society. And that is something that should be acknowledged.
In a first for Arizona prisons, guards at Lewis Prison in Buckeye recovered a crashed drone that was trying to deliver drugs and cell phones to inmates. Similar incidents have been happening around the country, and now, it has happened in the Valley. Keeping contraband out of prisons is a top priority for the state's Department of Corrections, but technology presented a new challenge at Lewis Prison. Investigators believe a drone tried to make a delivery to the prison yard in late September, but it crashed, and guards found the device, as well as the contraband.