Update: 6 days after receiving my request for comment on this story, the Department of Corrections says this change was "intended in good faith to relieve correctional officers from having to facilitate and monitor media telephone interviews of inmates"
"Media may reach out to the inmate or the inmate’s family to arrange to be added to the inmate’s approved caller list, and, through the inmate and family, rather than through an ADCRR correctional officer, the inmate may call the media representative"
Inmate families tell me getting on an approved caller list can take up to 30 days.
Also - because inmates are charged calling rates and fees, this means INCARCERATED PEOPLE IN ARIZONA PRISONS WILL NOW HAVE TO PAY TO TALK WITH THE MEDIA ON THE PHONE corrections.az.gov/sites/default/…
Also - because inmates are charged calling rates and fees, this means INCARCERATED PEOPLE IN ARIZONA PRISONS WILL NOW HAVE TO PAY TO TALK WITH THE MEDIA ON THE PHONE corrections.az.gov/sites/default/…
ADC confirms the new policy for conducting phone interviews with inmates: Reporters have to fill out this form and pay a $25 processing fee for each inmate we want to speak with. The approval can take up to 60 days and reporters can only be on one inmate's approved list at a time 
Stories like this are no longer possible. I interviewed 6 incarcerated people over the phone to expose the "Yuma Disturbance" as ADC called it to be the dangerous riot full of human rights violations that it actually was kjzz.org/content/733102…
Stories like this are no longer possible. I interviewed Jeffrey LeClair from the Florence prison about how he and other inmates were improperly billed and targeted by debt collectors for medical procedures the state was supposed to pay for kjzz.org/content/938136…
Stories like this are no longer possible. I interviewed Nathan Alvarez from the Yuma prison about how the lack of health care treatment he received in prison left him permanently disabled kjzz.org/content/108779…
