State money allocated to the Arizona Department of Corrections should be used for higher education, according to the Arizona Advocacy Network, a non-partisan coalition of more than 20 organizations for social justice.
The Arizona Legislature has already approved the addition of 4,600 private prison beds with an estimated cost of more than $100 million a year, according to the network's report.
The $100 million should be used for education instead, said Joel Foster, vice president of issue and task force coordination for the Arizona Advocacy Network.
"We want the governor and Legislature to keep their promises and keep higher education and social programs intact," Foster said. "There are better ways to spend money than on prisons."
Jim Robideau, spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Corrections, said the money they receive from the state government is vital.
"We have over 30,000 inmates statewide and are facing a shortage of about 3,500 to 4,500 beds," Robideau said.
Robideau said he'd like to have funding stay within the Department of Corrections and not be used for higher education because of the bed and prison guard shortage.
"Beds are the priority," Robideau said.
State Sen. Jim Waring, vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the state likely will get only $5.5 billion in revenue and is facing the worst economy since the Great Depression.
"We've got more students in our state, more students in our universities, more prisoners in our prisons and more people in the state," Waring said. "It makes it very difficult to fund everything everyone wants because there is less money."
Former gubernatorial candidate Alfredo Gutierrez issued a statement based on the network's report regarding the Hispanic population in Arizona.
"While we spent $193 million in 2002 to incarcerate Latinos, we spent only $125 million to send Latinos to state universities," Gutierrez said. "If we want to create a brighter future in Arizona, we must choose to fund families and people, not prisons."
Waring said any department receiving state money will face a budget cut in fiscal year 2004.
"While, yes, it would be nice to spend less on our prisons, right now we're already short about 900 prison guards," Waring said. "If one of them calls in sick, the person who was there before can't go home."
Associated Students of ASU President Mike Leingang said although prisons may be overcrowded, ASU is too.
"The legislators haven't had the opportunity to walk through the [Memorial Union] during lunch or attend a class in Neeb Hall where the classrooms are overcrowded," he said.
Seth Miller, assistant director of government relations for ASASU, said he is working for higher education funding.
"If the prisons won't be used in 2005, then let's pay for them down the road instead of putting it in the 2004 budget," said Miller, a political science and economics junior. "We need money for education now."
Waring said not funding correctional facilities would put "life and limb at stake."
"It's not that we're singling out universities," Waring said. "This isn't something that we want to do, but I think all areas of government are going to have to be prepared to take a cut."
Reach the reporter at meagan.pollnow@asu.edu.
