THE 2021 LEGISLATIVE SESSION

The session opened January 11, 2021.  Due to Covid-19, it is now possible to appear and speak to support or oppose a bill via Zoom.  If you intend to appear in person at a legislative committee hearing you must wear a mask at all times in public areas of the building.  If you are meeting with a legislator in person in their office, it is up to each individual legislator as to whether you must continue to wear your mask.

We are monitoring about 100 bills which have been introduced thus far which have something to do with criminal justice.  We will not be publishing a synopsis of them here.  Instead, we publish an updated version of our newsletter which provides a synopsis  of each bill we are tracking in the House and the Senate.  If you want a copy of this document, send an email to:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

HB = House Bill        SB=Senate Bill 

To read the content of any bill, type "Arizona State Legislature" into your search engine.  On the home page in the upper right hand corner, there is a rectangular box for bill number.  Type in the bill number you wish to view.  When it comes up, click on "documents" to view the original introduced version of the bill, and be sure to scroll down to examine and adopted amendments.  If you see "engrossed" version of the bill, that means it passed its original chamber (either the House or the Senate) and will now move to the opposite chamber for consideration.  If you continue to scroll, you'll eventually be able to see if the bill was actually passed into law and signed by the Governor.  This would be the "chaptered version."   If a bill fails during one legislative session, it does not retain its bill number during any subsequent sessions.   If, for example, a sentencing reform bill is introduced in one year's session and it fails or never gets a hearing (example HB 2270 in the 2019 session), it is not re-introduced under the same bill number the next year.  In fact, it may not be re-introduced at all.  It might be re-written in an attempt to correct the problems that resulted in its failure in the previous legislative session.