By admin 
TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – An Arizona Senate Bill signed into law by Governor Katie Hobbs is said to provide more oversight for the prison system, but funding has yet to be allocated to start implementation.
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Arizona’s prison system continues to see incidents that tie back to the lack of oversight.
April 4th, 2025, Ricky Wassenaar, an inmate at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Tucson confessed to killing three fellow inmates.
Because specifics were not released, 13 News put in a public records request three days later, asking for “any photos, videos and documents related to the deadly incidents involving inmate Ricky Wassenaar including surveillance video of the incidents themselves.”
More than a year later, 13 News just received some of those documents.
They detail how Wassenaar brutally murdered the three inmates, one with head trauma and a ligature around his neck, and two with blunt force trauma to their heads after being hit with a bag that contained a large rock.
But perhaps one of the most alarming pieces of this report was Wassenaar’s first victim, his cellmate, was not found until quite some time after he was killed.
The report says, “based on the condition of the body and the presence of rigor mortis, it appears he was killed several hours earlier.”
So the question is–could two other deaths have been prevented, had an officer seen Wassenaar’s first victim?
“That’s really upsetting to hear that someone was killed and unnoticed for that period of time. I mean, I think that that speaks to a few things,” says Estrella Lopez, Senior State Policy Manager at Justice Action Network. “One of the issues that we know that, quite frankly, carceral settings around the country are facing is staffing shortages. It’s…they’re having difficulties with staffing. It’s a difficult job, no matter what. But when there is violence, when there’s instability, when conditions in the prison deteriorate, it’s not only bad for the inmates, obviously it is. It’s also bad for correctional officers who don’t want to work in that environment. They may choose to go seek other employment. When that happens, the staffing shortages get worse, the conditions get worse, and the prison starts on kind of a death spiral.”
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It’s been no secret the Arizona Department of Corrections is battling staffing shortages, among other issues.
So when Governor Katie Hobbs passed SB1507 last year, the hope was that with funding, the office created to monitor prison conditions, ensure compliance, and investigate complaints, would be able to carry out its intended mission. But that has not been the case.
“So I think that there’s a great deal of frustration. You know, this is the second year in a row that the legislation has, the legislators rather have made it clear that this is a priority, right? The bill passed last year, creating the oversight office. Unfortunately, it didn’t get into the budget. And this year, nearly unanimously, bills went through their respective chambers saying we need to put money behind this office. It can’t just be on paper alone. It has to be able to exist in the world. And throughout this process, we’ve heard from, you know, legislators who are worried about how resources are being allocated. This is a department that has $1.6 billion as its budget. To not have a $1.5 million for oversight is just, it’s a bad allocation of resources. It’s not good stewardship of money,” says Lopez.
So what’s next?
Advocates like Lopez want to see the original commitment reflected in the next state budget.
“The state keeps paying for lawsuits. Any single lawsuit can far exceed what this office would cost. The state is…the prison’s health care system is going into federal receivership. That is going to cost a lot of money. So while the state keeps saying, you know, we can’t afford this, I would argue the state can’t afford not to do this. And it can be easy for that to get lost when there are so many budget priorities. I understand that. But this is just a smart investment that will save Arizona money in the long term. And it’s morally the right thing to do.”
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