Towns, cities, schools are all exploiting prison labor in Arizona

© Michael Chow/The Republic A corrections bus is parked in Willcox.

At 50 cents an hour, governments across Arizona have come to rely on prisoners to carry out basic maintenance of everything from their public golf courses to libraries, schools and civic centers.

Economists on both the right and left of the political spectrum don't have a lot of good to say about the practice, according to a 15-month investigation by The Arizona Republic and KJZZ News. But governmental entities maintain that using prison labor allows them to offer more amenities to their populations without having to raise taxes.

From January 2014 through January 2020, Arizona's prisons sent about 2,000 prisoners to counties, cities, towns and school districts across the state each month. But those numbers plunged during COVID-19 and have only bounced back to a little over half of what they used to be.

Residents said they grew accustomed to prisoners grooming their parks, golf courses and cemeteries, and noticed the difference during the pandemic when they were gone. Prisoners countered they would appreciate more than 50 cents an hour for their labor.

Here is a sample of some of the governmental entities around the state that have used prison labor since 2017, according to contracts provided by the Department of Corrections:

Subscribe to azcentral.com to read Prison Sell, an investigation into Arizona's prison labor. 

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Towns, cities, schools are all exploiting prison labor in Arizona