Title 31 — Prisons and Prisoners
4 chapters · 124 sections in this title.
A.R.S. § 31-101 Common jails; duty of sheriff; use of jails
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The common jails in the several counties and county jails under the jurisdiction of county jail districts shall be kept by the sheriffs of the counties in which they are respectively located. The jails shall be used for detention of persons committed to them in accordance with th…
A.R.S. § 31-104 Employment of temporary guards
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The sheriff may, when necessary, with the written consent of the county board of supervisors, employ temporary guards for protection of the county jail or safekeeping of prisoners, the expenses of which shall be a county charge or, if a county jail district has been established, …
A.R.S. § 31-105 Designation of jail in contiguous county; revocation of designation
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A. If there is no jail in the county, or when a jail becomes unfit or unsafe for confinement of prisoners, the judge of the superior court may, by written order filed with the clerk of the court, designate the jail of a contiguous county for confinement of prisoners at the expens…
A.R.S. § 31-106 Disease in jail; removal of prisoners
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When a pestilence or contagious disease occurs in or near a jail and the physician in attendance certifies that it is liable to endanger the health of the prisoners, the judge of the superior court may, by an order in writing, designate a safe and convenient place in the county, …
A.R.S. § 31-107 Emergency removal of prisoners
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When a county jail or building contiguous to it is on fire and there is reason to apprehend that the prisoners may be injured or endangered, the sheriff shall remove them to a safe and convenient place and there confine them as long as necessary.
A.R.S. § 31-121 Duty of sheriff to receive and provide for prisoners; contracts for furnishing food; city or town prisoners; employment; canteens; special services fund; insurance; education programs
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A. The sheriff shall receive all persons who are committed to jail by competent authority and provide them with necessary food, clothing and bedding, the cost of which shall be a county charge or, if a county jail district has been established, a charge of the district, except as…
A.R.S. § 31-122 Receiving and keeping federal prisoners
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A. The sheriff may receive and keep in the county jail any prisoner committed thereto by process or order issued under the authority of the United States until the prisoner is discharged according to law as if he had been committed under process issued under the authority of the …
A.R.S. § 31-123 Confinement of person committed to jail
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A prisoner committed to the county jail for trial or for examination, or upon conviction for a public offense, shall be actually confined in the jail until he is legally discharged. If the prisoner is permitted to go at large, except by lawful order or process, or pursuant to the…
A.R.S. § 31-124 Segregation of prisoners; males and females; minors and adults
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A. Male and female prisoners shall not be kept or placed in the same room. B. A person under the age of eighteen years shall not be confined in the same section of any jail or prison in which adult prisoners are confined.
A.R.S. § 31-125 Duty of sheriff to deliver judicial papers to prisoner
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When a paper in a judicial proceeding is directed to a prisoner in the custody of a sheriff and is served upon the sheriff, he shall forthwith deliver it to the prisoner with a notation thereon of the time of service. If the sheriff neglects to do so he is liable to the prisoner …
A.R.S. § 31-126 Examination of certain prisoners for mental disorder
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When a person confined in the county jail upon arrest for or conviction of a misdemeanor manifests symptoms of a mental disorder, the sheriff shall notify a licensed physician who shall examine the person. If in the judgment of a licensed physician the person is suffering from a …
A.R.S. § 31-127 Abuse of prisoner; classification
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A public officer who with criminal negligence is guilty of inhumanity or oppression toward a prisoner under his care or in his custody is guilty of a class 2 misdemeanor.
A.R.S. § 31-128 Unauthorized communication with prisoner; classification
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A person not authorized by law who, without permission of the officer in charge of a jail, communicates with a person imprisoned or detained therein, or who takes any letter, writing, literature or reading matter to or from a person imprisoned or detained therein, is guilty of a …
A.R.S. § 31-129 Taking prohibited articles into jail; violation; classification; definitions
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A. A person not authorized by law who knowingly takes into a jail or the grounds belonging to the jail any marijuana, narcotic drug or dangerous drug, or intoxicating liquor of any kind, or firearms, weapons or explosives of any kind is guilty of a class 5 felony. B. For the purp…
A.R.S. § 31-130 Destruction of or injury to public jail; classification
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A person who intentionally and without lawful authority breaks, pulls down or otherwise destroys or injures a public jail or other place of confinement is guilty of a class 5 felony.
A.R.S. § 31-131 Operation of inmate industry program; special services fund; application of earnings
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A. On approval of the county board of supervisors, the sheriff may operate an inmate industry program and for that purpose may employ personnel, purchase equipment and incur other necessary expenses for the operation and management of the program, making payment therefor through …
A.R.S. § 31-132 Duty to deliver medical records
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Prior to or at the same time a prisoner is transferred from a county jail facility to a state department of corrections facility by a county, a copy of the prisoner's county jail medical record file, including the prisoner's mental health file, or a standardized medical record su…
A.R.S. § 31-141 Enforcement of sentence imposing hard labor; employment of prisoners; definition
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A. If a person is sentenced to serve a certain number of days in a county jail, the court imposing the sentence may order, in addition to any other sentence authorized by law, that the defendant be kept at hard labor during the term of the sentence, or for any part of such senten…
A.R.S. § 31-142 Use of prisoners on public works
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A. The sheriff may, with the consent of the board of supervisors, require prisoners under his charge who are capable of hard labor to be employed on the public streets, highways or other public works where they will not compete with free labor in the county. B. If a person is sen…
A.R.S. § 31-143 Use of prisoners by county engineer
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The county engineer shall receive and work prisoners sentenced to hard labor who are authorized by the board of supervisors to be employed. The engineer may exercise the powers of a constable to transport, supervise and control available numbers of prisoners released to him for w…
A.R.S. § 31-144 Double time allowance for work done outside jail as trusty
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A. A prisoner in a city, town or county jail, while working on the public streets, highways or other public works as a trusty outside the jail without requiring armed guards, or while holding a position of trust either within or without the jail, shall be allowed double time whil…
A.R.S. § 31-145 Allowance for hard labor in reduction of fine
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A. A prisoner sentenced to pay a fine shall be allowed not to exceed fifty dollars per day credited to the fine for each day he is employed at hard labor. B. A person committed for nonpayment of a fine shall be given credit toward payment for each day of imprisonment at the rate …
A.R.S. § 31-146 Notice of discharge of prisoners sentenced to pay fine or to be imprisoned until payment made
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Within five days after the end of each week, the officer having custody of prisoners who have been sentenced to pay a fine and ordered imprisoned until the fine is paid shall give notice to the committing court of all discharges during the week ending at midnight of the preceding…
A.R.S. § 31-161 Inmate health care; costs
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A. Subject to the approval of the county board of supervisors or the board of directors of a county jail district, the sheriff may charge each inmate who is committed to jail by competent authority a reasonable fee or copayment of not more than ten dollars for each inmate initiat…
A.R.S. § 31-162 Inmate health services fund; audit
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A. The inmate health services fund is established in each county treasury consisting of monies received pursuant to section 31-161. The sheriff shall administer the fund. B. The board of supervisors shall approve the use of fund monies to administer or provide health services to …
A.R.S. § 31-163 Subrogation
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A. If a county provides health services to an inmate or a juvenile detainee, the county has the right of subrogation against the individual's right of recovery from any source to the extent of the costs of services provided. B. The county is entitled to a lien for the charges for…
A.R.S. § 31-164 Inmate health insurance pools
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A. The board of supervisors of two or more counties or the board of directors of two or more county jail districts may enter into contracts or agreements pursuant to section 11-952.01 to jointly purchase insurance or to pool retention of their risks for inmate health care and to …
A.R.S. § 31-165 Inmate medical services; rate structure
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If an inmate in a county jail or a person who, but for the circumstances, would otherwise be treated in the county jail requires health care services that the county jail cannot provide, the county shall pay claims approved by the county from a facility or provider that provides …
A.R.S. § 31-201 Definitions
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As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires: 1. "Department" means the state department of corrections. 2. "Director" means the director of the department.
A.R.S. § 31-201.01 Duties of the director; tort actions; medical treatment costs; state immunity; definitions
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A. The director shall hold in custody all persons who are sentenced to the department under the law and shall hold such persons for the term directed by the court, subject to law. B. In addition to the medical and health services to be provided pursuant to subsection D of this se…
A.R.S. § 31-203 Persons disqualified as officers or employees
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No person shall be appointed to any office or be employed by the department on behalf of the state who: 1. Is a contractor for the department, except pursuant to section 31-204. 2. Is interested, directly or indirectly, in any business carried on in connection with the department…
A.R.S. § 31-204 Interest of employee in contracts; gifts to or from prisoner; penalty
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A. An officer or employee shall not have any monetary interest in any contract or purchase made by anyone for or on behalf of the department, or receive, directly or indirectly, compensation for services unless approved by the director. B. An officer or employee of the department…
A.R.S. § 31-206 Chaplains; duties; traditional Native American religious practitioners
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A. The prison chaplains shall devote as much of their time as the condition and employment of the prisoners reasonably justifies in giving the prisoners moral and religious instruction. The chaplains shall at all times, under the authority of the director, have access to the pris…
A.R.S. § 31-207 Payment of claims
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The department of administration shall draw a warrant for claims approved and allowed by the director under the provisions of this chapter, and the warrants shall be paid from the appropriation made to the department.
A.R.S. § 31-221 Master record file; information from other agencies; confidentiality of file; access; definition
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A. The state department of corrections shall maintain a master record file on each person who is committed to the department that contains the following: 1. All information from the committing court. 2. The reports of the reception-diagnostic centers. 3. Evaluation and assignment…
A.R.S. § 31-222 Research and evaluation programs
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A. The department shall establish programs of research, statistics and planning, including the study of its own performance concerning the treatment of adult offenders. B. The department may conduct and supervise research into the causes of detention and treatment of crime and di…
A.R.S. § 31-223 Use of force by correctional officers
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A correctional officer as defined in section 41-1661 may use all reasonable and necessary means including deadly force to prevent the attempt of a prisoner sentenced to the custody of the state department of corrections to: 1. Escape from custody or from a correctional facility. …
A.R.S. § 31-224 Duty to deliver medical records
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Prior to or at the same time a prisoner is transferred from a state department of corrections facility by the department to a county jail facility, a copy of the prisoner's state department of corrections medical record file, including the prisoner's mental health file, or a stan…
A.R.S. § 31-224.01 Prisoner medical records; release to immediate family or designated individual; definition
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B. For the purposes of this section, "medical record" includes any medical record that is retained by the department or a medical professional and that relates to medical treatment that was provided to the prisoner while in a department facility.
A.R.S. § 31-225 Attendance of prisoner in court
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When it is necessary that a person imprisoned by the department be brought before any court, or that a person imprisoned in a county jail be brought before a court in another county, an order may be made for that purpose by the court and executed by the sheriff of the county wher…
A.R.S. § 31-226 Mentally disordered prisoner; procedure for voluntary or involuntary hospitalization; notice; hearing; transfer; reports; return to incarceration or release; costs; definition
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A. If a prisoner confined in any facility operated by the state department of corrections displays symptoms of mental disorder to such a degree that transfer to the state hospital or a licensed behavioral health or mental health inpatient treatment facility operated by the state …
A.R.S. § 31-226.01 Emergency transfer procedures
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A. If the written report made pursuant to section 31-226, subsection A indicates reasonable cause to believe that, as a result of mental disorder, the prisoner is a danger to self or others and that without immediate treatment in a mental health inpatient treatment facility or th…
A.R.S. § 31-227 Expenses of prosecution; reimbursement of counties
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A. If a person is arrested within this state for any crime committed in or adjacent and related to a correctional facility under the jurisdiction of the state department of corrections or committed while escaped from a correctional facility under the jurisdiction of the departmen…
A.R.S. § 31-228 Procedure for discharge of prisoner; return of property; furnishing money, clothing and transportation ticket; allowing hair to grow before discharge
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A. When a prisoner is released conditionally on parole, community supervision or probation if the court waived community supervision pursuant to section 13-603 or is discharged from a facility of the state department of corrections there shall be returned to the prisoner everythi…
A.R.S. § 31-229 Functional literacy program; evaluation; certificate; exemptions; wages; definition
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A. The director shall establish and administer a functional literacy program in each correctional institution in this state. B. On commitment to the department, each inmate shall be given an educational evaluation, including a standardized assessment test in English or Spanish as…
A.R.S. § 31-229.01 Functionally literate inmates; education requirement; rules; inmate fees; definition
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A. If an inmate is determined to be functionally literate pursuant to section 31-229, has not received a high school diploma and is responsible for the support of dependent children who are receiving assistance pursuant to title 46, chapter 2, article 5, the inmate shall particip…
A.R.S. § 31-229.02 Functionally literate inmates; release eligibility
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A. Except as provided in section 41-1604.07, subsection F, if an inmate fails to achieve functional literacy at an eighth grade literacy level before the inmate becomes eligible for release pursuant to section 41-1604.07, the inmate is not eligible to begin the inmate's term of c…
A.R.S. § 31-230 Prisoner spendable accounts; fees
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A. The director shall establish a prisoner spendable account for each prisoner. All monies that are received by a prisoner and that are not required to be deposited in another account shall be deposited in the prisoner's spendable account. B. The director shall adopt rules for th…
A.R.S. § 31-231 Unauthorized communication with prisoner; classification; definition
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A. A person who is not authorized by law and who without legal or official permission communicates with a prisoner who is within the custody and control of the department is guilty of a class 2 misdemeanor. B. For the purposes of this section, all prisoners who are detained withi…
A.R.S. § 31-232 Family considerations in prisoner placement and visitation rules
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A. To the greatest extent possible and after accounting for security and capacity factors, the department shall place a prisoner who is a parent of a minor child in a prison facility that is located within two hundred fifty miles of the prisoner's permanent address on record. B. …