The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office run by U.S. Senate candidate Sheriff Mark Lamb has spent at least $217,000 from a jail commissary fund that Arizona lawmakers mandated be used “for the benefit and welfare of inmates” to instead buy a cache of weapons, ammunition and ballistic vests.
The purchases violate state law, criminal justice experts say.
Arizona Luminaria reviewed expenses and revenues from the sheriff’s office inmate welfare fund over a five-year period. From July 2018 to July 2023, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office spent just over $4 million for inmate services. At least $217,000 of that, or about 5.5%, was spent on guns, bullets and vests for the law enforcement agency, according to county budget documents obtained via a public records request.
Over the same five years, the county spent less than $900 on books for people detained in the jail
While not surprising unfortunately, you’d be amazed at how many IBF’s get used like administrative slush funds. I bet they got some nice upgrades when they appropriated due to COVID.
One thing that I think needs a lot more attention is the victims compensation fund, and how at least in my state inmates skirt ever having to pay anything into it by abusing the indigent system.