'Moderate' AG's office turned to groups that spent years suing prisons for recruiting help: emails reveal

EXCLUSIVE — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes office repeatedly sought recruiting help from two prominent left-wing legal groups that spent years suing the states corrections department alongside Mayes top deputy, internal emails obtained by Fox News Digital show.

Chief Deputy Attorney General Daniel Barr sought recommendations from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Berkeley-based Prison Law Office (PLO) for attorneys to handle Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry (ADCRR) work inside the Attorney Generals Office and later for candidates to serve as ADCRR general counsel, according to the emails.

Barr already had a long history with both groups before joining Mayes office. Prior to his position in the Arizona Attorney Generals Office, he was a partner at Perkins Coie, where he spent years litigating alongside the ACLU and PLO in a federal case that ultimately resulted in a judge finding Arizonas prison conditions to be constitutionally inadequate.

Both groups advocate substantial changes to incarceration policy. The ACLU has pursued a nationwide goal of cutting jail and prison populations by 50% through reforms including decriminalization, bail reform, shorter sentences and clemency, and has called for reductions in immigration detention. The PLO, meanwhile, says it works to reduce incarceration while also litigating on issues related to prison conditions, medical care, disability rights and solitary confinement.

In November's general election, Mayes is slated to face Arizona state Sen. Warren Petersen, a Republican, as she seeks to defend her role as the top law enforcement officer in the state. Mayes won her 2022 race by just 280 votes, one of the narrowest margins in state history.

"Maybe FOX News should start with the facts: the ACLU has repeatedly sued Kris Mayes over issues where they disagreed with her," Delaney Corcoran, the campaign manager for Mayes' re-election campaign, told Fox News Digital when asked about the email correspondence.

"Mayes has consistently fought for funding for Arizona police and cartel task forces — and stands shoulder to shoulder with Arizona sheriffs and police. Together, Mayes and law enforcement have seized 27 million fentanyl pills off of our streets, more than any other Attorney General in state history."

Mayes has defended Arizona against lawsuits from the ACLU challenging laws that allowed state and local police to arrest people illegally entering the country between ports of entry and restricted when people could film police officers. She later settled with the ACLU in the police filming case, agreeing to permanently prohibit the unconstitutional police recording law.

Though Mayes describes herself as a "

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