Nguyen Announces Joint Study Hearing on Prison Safety Measures

Arizona Capitol

State Representative Quang Nguyen (R-1) has announced that the Joint Ad Hoc Study Committee on Correctional Practices and Facility Safety will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, August 26th.

The Ad Hoc Study Committee on Correctional Practices and Facility Safety had been formed in response to a string of inmate deaths in several Arizona prisons, including the infamous triple murder of Saul Alvarez, Thorne Harnage, and Donald Lashley by Ricky "Rooster" Wassenaar at the beginning of April.

Wassenaar, a highly dangerous career criminal, had been transferred out of the higher-security wing of the Arizona State Prison Complex to the lower-security wing, which allowed him access to his victims.

In a phone call with the Arizona Mirror, Wassenaar seemed to claim that Alvarez, Harnage, and Lashley, each of whom was convicted of sexual crimes against minors, deserved to be killed, saying, "Child molesters: I wanted to kill them all. That's all I can say. The taxpayers no longer have to pay for them. I'm paying my debt to society."

"The fact that Ricky Wassenaar — a violent criminal with an extensive history, including the 2004 hostage crisis at Lewis Prison — was able to take the lives of three fellow inmates demands an immediate and honest explanation," said State Rep. Nguyen at the end of April, adding, "The public is entitled to know why someone serving multiple life sentences was not tightly secured. His capacity to kill three other inmates in a single day suggests that either the management and operation of the Tucson facility is incompetent, or our system has become dangerously lenient when firmness is required."

As a result, a key issue to be discussed in the upcoming hearing will be these instances of high-security prisoners being placed in the lower-security facilities despite the threat they are known to pose.

State Rep. Nguyen announced the hearing in a post to X (formerly Twitter), saying, "Next Tuesday, the Joint Study Committee on Correctional Practices and Facility Safety will hold a hearing on recent inmate deaths in Arizona's prisons. We'll be asking tough questions about custody-level overrides and staff safety. The public is welcome to attend or watch live."

Grayson Bakich

Florida born and raised, Grayson Bakich is a recent recipient of a Master’s Degree in Political Science at the University of Central Florida. His thesis examined recent trends in political polarization and how this leads into justification of violence.