ADCRR Director, critics clash over safety concerns
Arizona prisons director defends policies, leadership
Arizona's top corrections official faced hours of questioning from lawmakers and critics at a legislative hearing Tuesday on state prison violence and safety. FOX 10's Nicole Krasean speaks one-on-one with ADCRR Director Ryan Thornell.
PHOENIX - Arizona's top corrections official faced hours of questioning from lawmakers and critics at a legislative hearing Tuesday on state prison violence and safety.
The next day, Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry (ADCRR) Director Ryan Thornell defended his leadership, while critics maintained the department's policies are failing inmates and staff.
What they're saying:
During the ad hoc committee hearing on prison practices, prison reform advocate Donna Leone Hamm voiced concerns over a continued increase in inmate-on-inmate assaults. "What they're doing doesn't seem to be hitting the mark," Hamm said.
Former ADCRR employee Travis Scott, who retired in May after more than three decades with the department, also testified against the director.
"Director Thornell's leadership has been marked by incompetence and poor decision-making," Scott said. "Under his leadership and that of his appointees, the department has steered in an increasingly unsafe direction."
The other side:
In a subsequent interview on Aug. 27, Thornell addressed the accusations.
"If that's the course they want to take when they leave the agency, let them do it," Thornell said. "I'm focused on the leadership team we have now, which is the best leadership team this agency has ever seen."
Thornell said he wants to meet with legislators to address the prison violence statistics, adding that there is "so much complexity that people really have to take time to understand."
The director also directly responded to a case cited by critics as an example of systemic failure: inmate Ricky Wassenaar. He is accused of killing three inmates at a Tucson state prison in April. Hamm argued the incident highlighted problematic practices.
Thornell said the department is already revamping its system.
"Following the Wassenaar incident, we implemented a whole new approach to close custody management that we still are operating within today," Thornell said. "We implemented a new count procedure to start the day and to end the day. We implemented a new escort procedure. We implemented a new operational clock. We implemented new staffing ratios at different times of the day."
While Thornell said his department will investigate all concerns and "put a solution in place," Hamm said the department cannot rest on words.
"They say they're transparent; they're not. They say they have accountability; they don't," Hamm said. "They cannot rest on words, they have to perform."
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Dig deeper:
Thornell mentioned the rollout of 1,300 body-worn cameras to some of the highest-security areas within state prisons. Hamm says 1,300 cameras is not enough.
"Until everybody’s wearing a body cam, I don’t think you can rely on that particularly," Hamm said.
Thornell says the scrutiny he’s under comes with the title.
"When you come into a position like this, when you come into an agency with the reputation that we have here and the history that we have here, I knew I was walking into a no-win situation. I make one decision, and it pleases one group of people, I make that same decision, and it angers a different group of people," Thornell said.
Ryan Thornell, ADCRR Director, on prison violence | Extended interview
Ryan Thornell, Director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry (ADCRR), sat down with FOX 10 to talk about the recent violence, some deadly, in Arizona state prisons and what's being done about it.