Inmate Organ Donor Program

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

There is an ever present need in the United States for need of organ and tissue donations for transplant surgeries. Every 11 minutes another name is added to the national waiting list, and each day 18 people die waiting for their organ transplant. With this massive need for donations the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office decided to take action. In 2007, Maricopa County authorized the creation of the Inmate Organ Donor Program. When a person is booked in to the Maricopa County Jail they are asked if the wish to become an organ donor. The individuals that indicate they are willing to register, are then taken to a computer terminal by a Sheriff’s Detention Officer. The Officer then enters the individual’s information on to the Arizona organ donor registry website. Upon completion of the data entry the individual continues their process through the criminal justice system. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is one of the largest jail systems in the country. It contains six jails with an average daily population of approximately 7700. These individuals are pre sentence and pre pretrial detainees or sentenced to a year or less. With this constant turnover the Inmate Organ Donor Program has seen sizable results. Since its inception in June of 2007, 12,243 Maricopa County inmates have been added to the Arizona organ donor registry.