The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office run by U.S. Senate candidate Sheriff Mark Lamb has spent at least $217,000 from a jail commissary fund that Arizona lawmakers mandated be used “for the benefit and welfare of inmates” to instead buy a cache of weapons, ammunition and ballistic vests.

The purchases violate state law, criminal justice experts say.

Arizona Luminaria reviewed expenses and revenues from the sheriff’s office inmate welfare fund over a five-year period. From July 2018 to July 2023, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office spent just over $4 million for inmate services. At least $217,000 of that, or about 5.5%, was spent on guns, bullets and vests for the law enforcement agency, according to county budget documents obtained via a public records request.

Over the same five years, the county spent less than $900 on books for people detained in the jail

  • Horsey@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Pima county resident here: Pinal county is pretty much a Trump cesspool of retirees and people who think the world is out to get them. Their county has been on a steady decline as the brain drain moves north to Phoenix. Doesn’t surprise me lmao.