Arizona prisons Director David Shinn to step down in January

Arizona Department of Corrections Director David Shinn announced his plans to retire from the agency, according to an internal email The Arizona Republic obtained on Friday afternoon.

Shinn said his last day will be Jan. 4, 2023 — two days after Gov.-Elect Katie Hobbs is sworn into office.

"While these past several years have presented many challenges, the time I have spent working alongside each of you has been a labor of love," Shinn wrote to employees. "The opportunity to accomplish so much in such a short amount of time will always remain a tremendous source of pride in our Department. I vividly recall watching the trying circumstances you worked prior to my arrival which broke my heart and brought me into this challenging opportunity with an undying determination for us to succeed together."

The Department of Corrections confirmed Shinn's retirement in an emailed statement.

However, Shinn's legacy as DOC's director contains a litany of controversies since Gov. Doug Ducey appointed him in 2019.

Shinn inherited an ongoing prison health care settlement and became the new primary defendant in the underlying lawsuit involving a group of people in Arizona prisons who claimed their Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment were being violated.

A federal court recognized the group and the class-action lawsuit was then named Parsons v. Ryan, named after plaintiff Victor Parsons and then-Director Charles Ryan. Arizona agreed to settle the case in 2014 and it was approved by a judge the next year. 

But federal courts overseeing the settlement ruled the state had failed to follow the terms of the agreement, holding the agency in contempt twice and fining it $1.1 million under Shinn's leadership in 2021. U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver rescinded the agreement altogether in July 2021 and ordered a bench trial, which began on Nov. 1 of that year.

During that trial, Shinn went so far as to say that those in Arizona prisons "often have greater access to care than I do as a private citizen,” despite repeated court sanctions totaling millions of dollars, and weeks of testimony from prisoners to the contrary.

Silver castigated Shinn for his comments and leadership in a bristling ruling that found DOC's health care system and confinement conditions unconstitutional.

"The claim that prisoners’ access to care 'exceeds' the access to care enjoyed by people in the community is completely detached from reality," Silver wrote. "Given the overwhelming evidence and repeated instances of insufficient care leading to suffering and death, defendant Shinn could not possibly believe prisoners have the same access to care as people in the community."

Silver added that Shinn's testimony was "a blatant admission of his flagrant dereliction of responsibilities as the director of the Arizona prison system."

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Under Shinn, the Department of Corrections denied The Republic access to serve as a media witness for executions, according to a demand letter from The Republic sent in May 2022. Witnesses who were granted access were not permitted to see the entirety of the executions.

In January 2022, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of a man incarcerated in an Arizona prison who claimed the Department of Corrections media policy, updated under Shinn, discriminates against Black artists.

Shinn’s Corrections Department drew further controversy after spending more than $24 million on a flawed computer system that was unable to calculate updates to sentencing laws, again keeping people in prison for longer than necessary.

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He also drew scrutiny from prisoners and employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. After backtracking on a mask ban, Shinn mandated that employees wear masks but failed to provide any to prisoners.

The department had recorded more than 70 prisoner deaths from COVID-19, nearly 15,000 infections among incarcerated people, and more than 5,000 staff members self-reported COVID-19 infections two years after Shinn told lawmakers he believed Arizona prisons were some of the safest places to live.

Legal woes and pandemic responses aside, the department had also faced security issues under Shinn's leadership.

Two incarcerated men escaped from the state prison in Florence in January, and remained on the loose for nearly five days. Records show the prison was understaffed at the time of the escapes and understaffing issues exacerbated under Shinn's watch.

When he was appointed in the fall of 2019, there were 1,136 corrections officer vacancies. In March 2020, Shinn told the state Legislature that “COVID-19 could actually not have been a better recruiting tool for us, than right now. We have no problem hiring folks."

Two years later, in July 2022, Shinn reported to state lawmakers that the number of officer vacancies had increased by 66% under his leadership, to 1,891. 

According to the Department of Corrections, as of Dec. 2, vacancies increased again, to 1,931.

Chronically low staffing was one of the issues cited by whistleblowers who told The Republic in August that the Lewis prison was “on the brink of collapse.”

Problems await:Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs to inherit troubled Arizona prison system

It remains unclear whom Hobbs will appoint to navigate the Corrections Department out from under the mountain of controversies that plague it, though campaign spokesperson Joe Wolf acknowledged it needed reform.

“The Hobbs administration will work with stakeholders and experts to investigate those issues, implement policy to ensure tax dollars are not wasted and ensure that public safety is prioritized,” Wolf said. “The Department of Corrections and its need for steady leadership is on our radar and our administration will be looking at all options on the table to bring that to the department."

Republic reporter Jimmy Jenkins contributed to this article.

Reach the reporter Perry Vandell at 602-444-2474 or perry.vandell@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @PerryVandell.