The union representing Arizona state prison workers is demanding that corrections officials call off what it describes as a retaliatory criminal investigation into staff who leaked videos showing inmates attacking corrections officers. In a letter to prison director Ryan Thornell, Arizona Correctional Peace Officers Association president Martin Bihn wrote that the investigation may be unlawful and should be stopped immediately.
“We are writing to ask that ADCRR stop its retaliatory criminal investigation of staff whistleblowers,” Bihn wrote, according to ABC15 Arizona. The union represents more than 1,700 Arizona state prison workers, and Bihn's letter argues that staff released the videos to draw attention to rising inmate attacks on officers and what he called the agency's failure to stem the assaults.
Bihn also raised concerns about how the investigation has been carried out, writing that “the way the investigations are conducted may violate the law.” The union says the lines between internal administrative inquiries and criminal investigations are being blurred — a distinction that matters because state workers can be compelled to sit for interviews tied to internal investigations, but cannot be compelled to participate in interviews conducted as part of a criminal investigation.
Competing Numbers on How Many Employees Were Interviewed
The scale of the interviews is itself disputed. Bihn's letter states that Department of Public Safety detectives have conducted more than 100 employee interviews. A separate ABC15 report on the broader probe cited a source saying “there's over 40 right now” — the two figures were not reconciled in the available reporting, and both the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry and the Department of Public Safety have confirmed only that an investigation is active, without detailing its scope.
Neither agency has said much beyond that confirmation. ADCRR told the station it does not comment on active investigations, and DPS said its protocol is to never comment on an ongoing investigation. That silence has left the union's account as the most detailed public version of how the probe is unfolding.
What the Leaked Videos Show
The investigation into the leaks traces back to a string of videos depicting violence inside Arizona's prison system, most of them originating at the Eyman complex in Florence. One video dated May 27 shows an officer being sucker-punched by an inmate. Another, recorded Aug. 8, shows an officer being punched and attacked before backup arrives. A third, from Sept. 29, shows a single officer surrounded and attacked outside in the rain by multiple inmates — footage that, per ABC15's reporting on the broader leak investigation, added to a growing collection obtained by the outlet documenting assaults on staff.
Those three videos follow an earlier one that drew wide attention: footage showing inmates using locks as weapons during an attack inside an Arizona prison, reported by azcentral.com. A corrections union leader told the outlet at the time that the attack was not an isolated incident, and both a prison reform advocate and the union leader said the footage reflected deeper, systemic failures that prison officials had ignored.
A Pattern of Rising Violence
Prison officials have acknowledged the trend internally. A leaked Sept. 23 email, obtained by the same investigative team, announced that effective immediately there would be zero tolerance for staff assaults resulting in injury, and it required complex-level leadership to develop action plans in response. The total number of assaults inside Arizona's state prisons has more than doubled since Thornell became prison director, according to figures cited in that reporting.
Violence inside the system has shown up in other incidents this year as well. A large-scale altercation at Eyman on April 26 injured multiple inmates, including one severely, in what the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry described as an inmate-on-inmate altercation involving multiple inmates, according to azcentral.com. The day after, at least five men housed in Eyman's Rynning Unit were listed as hospitalized.
A separate case tied to the leaks resulted in criminal charges. Inmate Martin Franco was indicted Sept. 3 on three counts of aggravated assault for a July 28 attack on a corrections officer at Lewis prison, according to ABC15's reporting. The case was submitted to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office on Aug. 27 — one day after ABC15 told prison officials it had obtained leaked video of the attack — though state prison officials said the timing of that referral had nothing to do with the outlet's reporting.
Echoes of a Past Whistleblower Case
This is not the first time leaked prison footage has forced change in Arizona. Back in 2019, ABC15 obtained leaked videos proving that cell doors throughout Lewis prison did not lock. After those videos aired, the locks were finally fixed and the prison director quickly retired, the outlet reported — a precedent now being invoked as officials weigh how to respond to the current leaks.
Separately, a 2025 review of a Lewis prison use-of-force incident found that a sergeant did not de-escalate the situation and that the initial use of force was unnecessary, even as the review deemed the overall response reasonable and necessary, according to ABC15's reporting on an inmate's related claim. The open question now is whether the current leak investigation will end the way the 2019 case did, with findings that prompt reform, or whether it will instead be remembered — as the union insists it already should be characterized — as retaliation against the employees who spoke up.
