Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry

And as those temperatures rose to sometimes record highs, cooling systems failed in Arizona's state prisons, leaving thousands of inmates relying on things like swamp coolers, fans, and styrofoam coolers filled with ice.

Now, one state lawmaker is demanding answers from the Arizona Department of Corrections as budget cuts put a stop to a planned HVAC overhaul across the state prison system.

Kyra Reilly has the story for the Arizona Mirror, and she's here now to tell us more.

Good morning, Kyra.

... you know, far from it.

Okay.

So the Arizona Department of Corrections Rehabilitation and Reentry did have, like, a heat mitigation plan, right? With some money behind it, millions allocated to, like, an overhaul of the HVAC system in the state's prisons, which apparently needs it.

What happened to that plan?

The judge ordered James to spend two years behind bars and to pay nearly $60,000 in restitution.

He was sent to the Eagle Point unit of the Arizona Department of Corrections complex at Lewis, a prison buried in the arid, mountainous desert southwest of Phoenix.

Laura Tucker knew the sentencing wouldn't totally resolve things.

The minute I heard what the sentence was, my first thought was, well, nobody's going to be happy.

I don't know if they do it anymore.

I've never seen it here in the state of Florida, but Fester found Arizona Department of Corrections last meal requests.

And you click on it.

Oh, man.

So having a lot of conversations with them.

And then also the Arizona Department of Corrections.

So our state prison system who want to use it for kind of the same services.

So lots of conversations happening right now.

"With your summer salad, they use forced labor to pick the lettuce.

They pay the Arizona Department of Corrections $4.75 an hour for prison labor, and the workers make $1.50 an hour." So slavery is still alive and well in America, as long as you don't call them slaves, you call them prisoners, and then they can work in the hot Arizona sun for $1.50 an hour, as if Taylor Farms needed more bad press.

It's crazy that the prison makes more per hour than the actual people doing the work.

Like, why...