Closing down the Fort Grant Unit of the Arizona State Prison-Safford would have negative economic impacts to Safford and Graham County and could result in county jail inmates being sent to other counties.

Those are a few of the scenarios discussed by local government leaders in response to budget cuts submitted to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer by Charles L. Ryan, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections.

The budget cuts — which include laying off 107 full-time equivalent employees at Fort Grant — are not a proposal. Instead, they are a response to Brewer's request of all state agencies for budget reductions that could trim 15 percent from their spending plans, ADOC spokesman Barrett Marson said. Still, Safford City Manager David Kincaid is concerned about negative local impacts on "an economy that is already battered."

According to Kincaid, the city is operating with less state money due to the Arizona state budget crisis. A 15-percent cut in state agency budgets — not just ADOC — would have a "severe and profound" effect on the city.

Layoffs at the prison would result in less spending at Safford businesses. A 15-percent cut by other agencies would have other impacts. For example, a budget cut at the Arizona Department of Commerce would impact local economic development.

Budget cuts would also negatively impact the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

"If they take a 15-percent cut, the Arizona Department of Water Resources goes away," Kincaid said.

There would also be impacts to the county, including financial and overcrowding in the Graham County Jail, said Drew John, chairman of the Board of Supervisors.

"It would be a snowball effect," John said.

As the county continues to reel from layoffs from the Freeport-McMoRan copper mine near Safford, a layoff from Fort Grant would cause county residents to be even more cautious when spending money.

The ADOC budget cuts call for prison inmates with sentences of a year or less to be housed in the county jails. This would cause overcrowding in Graham County.

"We would lose our (federal) Bureau of Prisons contract," John said. "It would be almost impossible to take those prisoners into our jail."

He added that Graham would be forced to send its inmates to county jails throughout Arizona.

John said he does not believe the answer is to close state prisons or to privatize them. He believes the state should allow a private corrections company to build a new prison in Arizona to relieve the financial pressure on the existing system.