STATE FACING $126,000 BILL TO JAIL WOMAN

Taxpayers might have to pay $126,000 for a one-year prison term
imposed on a severely disabled woman who had marijuana in her house
while on probation for selling $20 worth of pot to a police informant.

State Corrections Director Terry L. Stewart said he would do all he
could to find an alternative to pricey arrangements his department
made to keep Deborah Lynn Quinn incarcerated in a facility that can
provide the 24-hour care she needs.

However, a prosecutor says the woman knew the consequences of her
crimes and deserves to be in prison despite the hefty price tag.

Quinn, a 39-year-old from Kingman who was born with no arms and only a
partial left leg, was placed at a secure medical unit at St. Mary's
Hospital on Tuesday by the Corrections Department.

Keeping her there costs $345 a day, well above the $45 to $50 it costs
on average to keep state inmates behind bars. And more than three
times the $90 a day spent incarcerating inmates in maximum security.

Quinn was convicted in October of selling four grams of marijuana to a
police informant for $20.

She was sentenced to probation, but Mohave County Superior Court Judge
Richard Weiss revoked it after authorities found about four ounces of
marijuana in a search of Quinn's house last December.

Quinn refused to be interviewed.

Her one-year prison sentence has put Stewart in an unusual position:
trying to find a way to get an inmate sprung.

"There must have been some alternative sentencing proposal that could
have been tried first," said Stewart. He said the hefty price of
Quinn's sentence is not justified by her crime.

"Here is an example of someone who is not a danger to the community,"
Stewart said.

Stewart said Quinn will be evaluated over the next few weeks to
determine if she qualifies for a medical furlough. State law allows
Stewart to release certain inmates if the Corrections Department lacks
facilities to care for them.

He said that while the department has assisted care facilities in
Tucson and Florence for severely disabled or ill male inmates, there
are too few female prisoners to justify such facilities for them.

"I'm not trying to second-guess the judge. I'm not trying to
second-guess the prosecutor," he said. But keeping Quinn in prison is
"a tremendous expense to the taxpayer."

A prosecutor defended the sentence as appropriate.

"I'm sorry it's expensive, but drug dealers shouldn't get a third
chance," said Jace Zack, chief deputy Mohave County attorney. "She was
well aware of the consequences."

Zack said county officials considered intensive probation, but found
electronic monitoring to keep Quinn home was pointless because Quinn
had been found to have drugs at home.

"The state Legislature and the people of the state of Arizona
recognized drug dealers as harmful people, and if they continue to
deal drugs they go to prison. We couldn't think of any way to stop her
from dealing drugs. She showed that she's going to do that. If she
didn't go to prison, she'd have a free ride to deal drugs forever,"
Zack said.

Quinn was two months into her probation when her probation officer
found marijuana and a scale in the same container in a routine visit
to her home.

Dustin Alder, her probation officer, said Quinn knew she could go to
prison for violating her probation.

"She put herself in this situation," he said, citing written probation
conditions that forbade Quinn to possess, sell marijuana or associate
with drug users or dealers.

Alder said there were several people in Quinn's house during his
visit, including several youths.

"That could have been my kid or your kid that she was selling dope
to," he said. "That's the way I look at it."

Arizona Daily Star reporter Enric Volante contributed to this story.