The Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry is pushing back after a federal judge seized control of health care in the state’s prisons.
After 14 years of litigation, U.S. District Court judge Roslyn Silver last month said Arizona’s prisons were failing to provide adequate health care to inmates. And Silver took an extraordinary step, ruling a receiver must be appointed to oversee the prison health care system.
“The court’s patience has run out. Too many individuals are needlessly suffering while Defendants have deployed many delay tactics,” Silver wrote.
The Department of Corrections on Thursday filed an appeal in the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals.
In a statement last month, the department acknowledged it has not achieved full compliance with previous court orders, but said it has made measurable improvements in health care delivery over the past several years. And the department said taxpayers will foot the bill for the receivership.
“If this decision stands, an exorbitantly expensive, unnecessary receiver risks disrupting the significant progress we have made in our prisons, all with no time clock on its authority,” Department Director Ryan Thornell stated. “We will be promptly appealing the decision while continuing our work to comply with the Court’s orders and running a secure, safe, and accountable prison system.”
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The Arizona Supreme Court has issued an execution warrant for Leroy Dean McGill. -
The state Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry late last week announced it planned to appeal a judge’s ruling that appointed a receiver to oversee Arizona’s prison health care system. -
Grijalva, local leaders and a few dozen protesters gathered outside the gated-off Marana Prison complex – an old state prison sold to the for-profit Management & Training Corporation last year for $15 million. -
In an 83-page order, Judge Roslyn Silver detailed complaints that go back 14 years about inadequate physical and mental health care at the 10 prison complexes across the state. That included a history of agreements to do better, injunctions and even multimillion dollar fines. -
Republican lawmakers on a Senate committee advanced a pair of bills that would give inmates a new option to choose for their method of execution, death by firing squad.
