phoenix — A federal judge has ordered a takeover of health care operations at Arizona state prisons and will appoint an administrator to run the system after years of complaints about poor medical and mental health care.
The decision by US District Judge Roslyn Silver on Thursday followed Rule 2022 Which concluded that Arizona violated prisoners’ rights by providing inadequate care that led to preventable suffering and deaths.
Silver wrote that the state had not achieved a semblance of compliance with the court-ordered changes and the Constitution after nearly 14 years of litigation, saying: “Not only has this approach utterly failed, but if it continues, it will amount to nothing less than judicial leniency for entrenched unconstitutional conduct.”
The judge said prisoners remained exposed to “a serious, immediate and intolerable threat of continued harm and suffering due to systemic deficiencies prevailing in the administration of health care”.
The Associated Press left a message for the Department of Corrections after the order was issued. The state and attorneys representing prisoners have 60 days to submit a slate of candidates to run the prisons’ health care and mental health operations.
“This decision means that an independent authority will be able to implement the systemic changes necessary to ensure that medical and mental health care meets constitutional standards,” said David Fathi, one of the lawyers representing the prisoners. “This is a life-saving intervention, and brings hope that the suffering and preventable deaths that have haunted Arizona’s prison system for more than a decade can finally end.”
Lawyers for the prisoners say Arizona has made few improvements since the ruling, and they asked the judge for the more drastic remedy of creating such a “reception,” arguing that the system remains broken and that prisoners who need care remain at risk.
For more than a decade, the state government has been criticized that its health care system for 25,000 inmates in Arizona’s state-run prisons is poorly managed and cruel.
The state pledged to reform medical and mental health services for prisoners in a 2014 settlement, but was quickly accused of failing to deliver on many of those promises. This resulted in $2.5 million Contempt of judicial fines Against the state, and ultimately, the agreement was rescinded by Silver, who explained that corrections officials showed little interest in making the changes.
The judge then ruled against the state in the 2022 trial, issuing an injunction requiring corrections authorities to fix the constitutional violations.
While inmate lawyers say the state lacks the leadership needed to comply within a reasonable period of time, the Department of Corrections said it has transformed the prison health care system over the past two years, such as expanding access to treatment, increasing staffing and opening medical housing units.
Corrections officials say the opposing side refuses to acknowledge the progress they have made and “focuses on the reputation and circumstances of the past rather than recognizing or even supporting the good work of the present.” Department lawyers say the agency’s leadership was acting in good faith with the court orders.
In September 2019, attorneys representing the prisoners filed a similar motion for seizure, but Silver backed off, saying she would revive that possibility if the state acted in bad faith or failed to comply with the court-ordered changes. Previous receivership orders have been issued for prisons in other states. And in California in 2005, a federal judge took control of the prison medical system after finding that an average of one inmate a week died from medical negligence or medical malpractice.
The Arizona lawsuit does not cover the nearly 10,000 people incarcerated in private prisons because of state convictions.