Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes' office repeatedly sought hiring help from the ACLU and Prison Law Office, groups that spent years suing state prisons.
Fox News Digital obtained internal emails showing Chief Deputy Attorney General Daniel Barr reached out again and again in 2023. He wanted attorney candidates for Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry work inside the AG’s office, and later for the department’s general counsel post.
Mayes has cast herself as a moderate partner to police. Her office turned to legal shops that push deep cuts in incarceration and have long battled Arizona’s prison system in court.
Barr put the request in plain terms. In a February 2023 email to the American Civil Liberties Union and the Berkeley-based Prison Law Office, he wrote that he wanted ADCRR legal work brought back in-house.
"I am looking to bring as much ADCRR work back in-house as possible in the Arizona AG’s office. To do that, I need to hire attorneys to represent ADCRR in numerous capacities. If you know of anyone who may be interested in helping to turnaround things around here, please let me know,"
He followed up in April. On May 11, 2023, he tried again on the general counsel vacancy.
"Still no takers for the ADCRR general counsel job. If you have any suggestions, please let me know,"
ACLU National Prison Project Director David Fathi moved fast. In February 2023 he asked Barr for a phone conversation. Barr replied two minutes later.
Fathi later promised to “redouble” his efforts to find a candidate after the May email. Deputy director Corene Kendrick floated a name of her own. She noted one possible recommendation was already “enjoying suing ADCRR in civil rights damages cases in her spare time of running her café in Carrizozo.”
Prison Law Office attorney Don Specter reported a “productive meeting” with the head of ADCRR in June 2023. Fathi also disclosed that the ADCRR director had reached out “to schedule a call about working together on ADCRR issues.”
Fox News Digital obtained the emails, not call transcripts or meeting minutes. How much further help followed remains unclear. The AG’s office, Barr, Fathi, Kendrick, Specter, the ACLU, and the Prison Law Office did not respond to requests for comment.
The ACLU has pushed a nationwide goal of cutting jail and prison populations by 50%. It has called for reductions in immigration detention. ACLU blog posts carry titles such as “Defunding the Police Will Actually Make Us Safer” and “Local Officials: Pledge to Divest from Police and Reinvest in Black Communities.”
Fathi’s own social media line was blunt: “we will never solve drug problems with police and prisons.”
The Prison Law Office works to reduce incarceration. It litigates prison conditions, medical care, disability rights, and solitary confinement. The group helped drive court-ordered cuts in California’s prison population.
Barr already knew that world. Before joining Mayes’ office he was a partner at Perkins Coie. There he spent years litigating alongside the ACLU and Prison Law Office in a federal case over Arizona prison conditions. A judge had found those conditions constitutionally inadequate.
Mayes won the attorney general’s race in 2022 by just 280 votes, one of the narrowest margins in state history. On the campaign trail she gave “a resounding no” when asked whether she supported defunding the police. She faces Republican state Sen. Warren Petersen, the Senate president, in the November general election.
Her re-election campaign leans hard into law-enforcement credentials. Campaign manager Delaney Corcoran pushed back hard on the email story.
"Maybe FOX News should start with the facts: The ACLU has repeatedly sued Kris Mayes over issues where they disagreed with her,"
Corcoran added that Mayes “has consistently fought for funding for Arizona police and cartel task forces and stands shoulder to shoulder with Arizona sheriffs and police.” She said Mayes and law enforcement “have seized 27 million fentanyl pills off of our streets, more than any other attorney general in state history.”
The campaign website strikes the same note: Mayes “has been a partner to law enforcement, delivering millions of dollars in funding and resources so border sheriffs and Arizona police can keep us safe.” It says she “has locked up drug cartel members, seized more than 27 million deadly fentanyl pills off our streets and gone after criminals trying to take advantage of our kids.”
Mayes did defend Arizona against ACLU lawsuits over laws allowing state and local police to arrest people illegally entering between ports of entry, and over restrictions on filming police. She settled the police-filming case and agreed to permanently prohibit the recording law the ACLU called unconstitutional.
The department eventually hired Ashley Oddo as general counsel. Oddo previously led Arizona State University’s Academy for Justice. She has backed several criminal-justice positions associated with the left, including addressing systemic racism in policing and pardoning people convicted of nonviolent federal marijuana offenses.
Oddo’s name does not appear in the ACLU or Prison Law Office email traffic with Barr. She has no institutional affiliation with either group. Oddo did not respond to a request for comment.
Barr kept asking the same outside advocates for names while Mayes told voters she stood with sheriffs and against defunding police. The emails show who got the recruiting calls when the AG’s office wanted lawyers for the prison system.
Voters can decide whether that is the moderate record Mayes advertises, or a quiet handoff to groups that spent years trying to shrink the very system her office is sworn to defend.
