200 Inmates Sign Letter To Ducey: Stop Coronavirus 'Timebomb'

PHOENIX — Social distancing is a steep challenge within the crowded confines of a prison. In a letter sent to Arizona Governor Doug Ducey and signed by 200 minimum-custody inmates, an offender at the Marana Community Correctional Treatment Facility claimed that the crushed spaces of the institution "represent nothing less than a time bomb."

"There is a considerable part of the state's population that is at an incredible high risk of getting infected with the virus," the letter argued, adding that social distancing is effectively impossible when "60 to 125 individuals live in common areas, in very confined spaces, whose beds are only 2 to 3 feet apart from each other."

The handwritten letter was authored by Rene Maldonado Dominguez, and last week KJZZ News published a scan of the two-page correspondence. According to online court records, Dominguez is currently serving a two-year prison sentence following a 2018 conviction for the crime of "attempt[ing] to commit marijuana violation."

Located north of Tucson, the privately-operated Marana facility currently holds around 450 inmates, five of whom have tested positive for the COVID-19 disease caused by the new coronavirus. Marana's number of confirmed coronavirus cases puts it in second-place in the state, behind only the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence, which as of Monday reported 15 confirmed cases of coronavirus among inmates.

According to the Arizona Department of Corrections website, the Marana facility is under contract "to provide custody and substance abuse treatment for 500 adult male inmates who have demonstrated a need for substance or alcohol abuse treatment."

But providing treatment and rehabilitation could be accomplished without worsening the pandemic inside prison, Dominguez's letter continued. It asks the governor to use his clemency powers to order the early release of non-violent offenders who have already served 60 to 70 percent of their sentences. (Dominguez himself is scheduled to be released in August.)

"These might be measures never seen before," Dominguez wrote in his address to the governor, "but this pandemic, too, is unprecedented, and no one knows how or when it will be resolved."

You can read the full letter here.