State Prisons in Arizona

Arizona Department of Corrections - Prisons & Inmate Search

Arizona State Prisons and Juvenile Facilities

Arizona runs its own state prison system through the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry (ADCRR). The state’s prison history goes back to the famous Yuma Territorial Prison, which opened in 1876 and is now a state historic park. The modern Department of Corrections was created in 1968 and took its current name in 2019 to reflect a bigger focus on rehabilitation and reentry.

ADCRR holds adults convicted of felonies and sentenced to prison, from drug and property crimes to murder, with sentences up to natural life. In early 2025 the department held about 35,500 people, including about 3,300 women. Arizona relies on private prisons more than most states: roughly 9,900 people, more than a quarter of the total, were held in privately run prisons.

Arizona state prisons

• State-run prison complexes (9): Douglas, Eyman (Florence), Lewis (Buckeye), Perryville (Goodyear, for women), Phoenix, Safford, Tucson, Winslow and Yuma
• Private prisons under contract: Central Arizona Correctional Facility, Florence West, Phoenix West and Kingman, run by GEO Group; and Red Rock and La Palma in Eloy, run by CoreCivic

The state closed most of its oldest prison, the historic Florence complex, in 2022 and moved thousands of its prisoners to the La Palma facility in Eloy. The execution chamber at Florence is still in use.

Where do new prisoners go first?

Men sentenced to prison are sent from the county jail to the Alhambra Reception Center at the Phoenix complex. Women go to the Lumley Unit at Perryville in Goodyear, and teenage boys sentenced as adults go to the Sunrise Unit at the Lewis complex. Reception lasts about 30 days for men and about three weeks for women. During that time staff complete medical, mental health and educational testing, review court records and decide the person’s custody level and permanent prison. No visits are allowed during reception. Visitors can apply only after the person reaches their assigned unit. Applications are filed online, require a one-time $25 background check fee, and take about 40 to 60 days to approve.

How to find an inmate in Arizona

Use the ADCRR Inmate Data Search to look up someone by name or ADCRR number. It shows the person’s current complex and unit, which you’ll need for mail. Letters must include the person’s full legal name, ADCRR number, complex, unit and that unit’s P.O. box, or they will be returned.

Death row and executions

Arizona’s death row held about 107 people in mid-2026, almost all men. Women on death row are held at Perryville, and executions take place at the state prison complex in Florence. Arizona has carried out 97 executions since statehood in 1912, 41 of them since 1976. After the botched 2014 execution of Joseph Wood, executions stopped for eight years. They resumed in 2022 and paused again while Attorney General Kris Mayes ordered a review, then restarted in 2025. Six people have been executed since 2022, most recently Leroy McGill in May 2026. Arizona uses lethal injection, but people sentenced for crimes committed before November 1992 can choose the gas chamber, which the state refurbished in 2021.

Prison health care under federal control

In February 2026, U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver placed medical care in Arizona’s prisons under a court-appointed receiver. That followed more than a decade of litigation (Jensen v. Thornell) over care she ruled unconstitutional. Court monitors found the department out of compliance with 131 of 154 health care standards. Extreme summer heat is another ongoing issue, and the department has a plan to add air conditioning to housing units that lack it.

Arizona juvenile facilities

The Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections (ADJC) became its own state agency on July 1, 1990, after years as a division of the adult prison system. Arizona has steadily shrunk its youth prison system. After closing Catalina Mountain School in Tucson in 2011, ADJC now operates one secure facility, Adobe Mountain School in north Phoenix, for young people a juvenile court commits to the state. Before a case is decided, youth are usually held in county juvenile detention centers. Juvenile records are confidential, so parents and guardians should contact ADJC directly.

To search for an inmate or juvenile, or to learn how to visit, call, write or send money to someone in the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry or Department of Juvenile Corrections, choose a facility from the list below.

Each prison you click on below will provide specific, detailed information about the facility's: 

• inmate search,
• location,
• contact information,
• directions,
• inmate visitation,
• mail,
• phone accounts,
• money accounts,
• commissary,
• texting and emailing where available, and
• inmate tablet rental where available.