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| A look from the inside; Local officials tour state prison |
| By eacourier.com - David Bell |
| Published: 09/30/2013 |
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SAFFORD — Pima Mayor George Lemen was direct about the value to the taxpayer of having a state prison nearby. “We’re a small town with only five employees except for the Police Department. If it wasn’t for the guys in the orange suits, we couldn’t make it.” Lemen was one of a group of local officials from Pima, Thatcher, Safford and Graham County who met with Arizona Department of Corrections Director Chuck Ryan and toured Arizona State Prison Complex-Safford on Thursday. “Inmate labor is a resource for governmental entities throughout the state. And we need to continue to do that,” Ryan said. “There aren’t enough make work opportunities in the institutions.” ASPC-Safford has 146 inmates working off-site out of the Graham Unit and another 77 from the Fort Grant Unit, combining for more than 400,000 work hours each year. At a labor cost of about $200,000 to local agencies, that produced an estimated savings of almost $3 million annually. The local officials were briefed on the operations of the prison as well as the state prison system. ASPC-Safford currently has an inmate population of about 1,600 — 200 below capacity — all moderate and low-security offenders. Read More. |
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