We (Arizona Citizens) must persuade Governor Doug Ducey and state legislators to follow the footsteps taken by the Federal Government to begin decreasing and eliminating contracts with private prisons. Arizona currently has 6 privately run prison facilities. This petition has been developed to show the large number of registered voters who oppose the use of private prisons in Arizona. We hope that our numbers will help to persuade state lawmakers to create legislation that will eliminate these private institutions in our state.
Arizona’s private prisons contractors are operated by two publically traded corporations: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and The GEO Group, Inc. In 2015, The Geo Group (who run 5 of the 6 Arizona private prisons) had a total revenue of 1.84 BILLION DOLLARS (GEO ANNUAL REPORT). The Arizona Republic, reported that in 2015 Arizona had the 6th highest incarceration rate in the country and ranked nearly last in every measure of child well-being. According to the 2015 column, Arizona was spending more on prison beds than our university system. They also reported that, “Private-prison companies have made thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to (Governor) Ducey and key lawmakers”.
We must push these special interest, private prison contractors out of our state.
We must hold our Governor and state legislators accountable. Please sign this petition and contact your state legislative officials, demanding the elimination of private prisons in Arizona. Legislative elections are approaching soon, we must make this issue known and vote accordingly.
To contact your state legislator visit:
http://www.azleg.gov/alisStaticPages/HowToContactMember.asp
To contact Governor Doug Ducey visit:
http://azgovernor.gov/governor/form/contact-governor-ducey
