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Water Restored After Outage At Douglas Prison

Arizona Department of Corrections building
Arizona Department of Corrections
Arizona Department of Corrections building in Phoenix.

The Arizona Department of Corrections said running water has been restored at the Douglas state prison after an  outage to the main supply was reported last week.

The well supplying the more than 2,000 people at the prison with water is owned and operated by Cochise County. The county said it was notified of a water outage at the prison Friday afternoon and has been attempting to restore services since then.

Officials said digging deeper in the existing well was successful, but a leak in the water pipes connecting to the prison caused another shutdown on Saturday.

The Department of Corrections and Cochise County announced late Monday night the leak was repaired, and water had been restored to all units at the prison.

The department said inmates can resume the use of sinks, toilets, showers and laundry.

However, as of Tuesday morning, inmates told family members who contacted KJZZ that they were still using portable toilets and drinking bottled water.

Jimmy Jenkins was a producer and senior field correspondent at KJZZ from 2014 to 2021.