In an effort to meet a federal judge's orders to improve care for nearly 25,000 inmates in state-run prisons, Arizona’s Joint Legislative Budget Committee signed off on a spending boost.

The first group of eight female inmates at the Arizona state prison in Perryville has completed a programming course through Arizona State University. It’s part of a bigger program focused on teaching skills to women in prison that can serve them in the job market upon their release.

Federal investigators say Arizona’s prison system illegally discriminates against inmates who are blind or partially sighted. The state Corrections director said his administration first learned of the federal review that went on for more than two years about two weeks ago.

A man who’s been on death row since the 1990s should soon be free after he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree murder in Pima County Superior Court on Thursday. The murder conviction of Barry Jones was thrown out in 2018 by a federal judge but then the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated it last year.

A Senate panel voted Tuesday to recommend confirmation of a new head of the state prison system after he assured them his agency is ready to again start executing inmates on death row.

Research links both current and past incarceration to declines in mental health, and deinstitutionalization means people with mental illness often end up imprisoned. Yet a new study shows many states provide only sparse data regarding suicides behind prison walls — in violation of federal law.

A government watchdog advisory released at the end of April finds persistent safety issues with federally run detention centers on tribal land.

The state Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty against a man convicted in the 1995 murder of University of Arizona Professor Roy Johnson.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has been ordered to appear in court Thursday in her efforts to halt pending executions.