PHOENIX — The Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Re-entry, or ADCRR, is not complying with a majority of court-ordered changes to its health care system, according to an order filed Thursday in federal court.
Last year, a federal judge outlined a series of changes ADCRR needed to make to its health care system, including overhauls in staffing and mental health care. Judge Roslyn Silver found in 2022 that ADCRR was violating inmates' rights with the current health care system. This is all part of a lawsuit over prison health care filed by the ACLU in 2012.
In the order Thursday, Judge Silver called the situation a "complete failure." She referenced a Court Monitors' report from earlier this year that indicates monitors could only assess 54 of the 184 changes she outlined last year. Of the 54 they reviewed, they found the department was only in compliance with five.
"These numbers establish, with rare exceptions, a complete failure to make, or even begin, the systemic changes required by the Permanent Injunction," Judge Silver wrote in the order.
She also writes that ADCRR has made some improvements over the past several months, including treatment for hepatitis C.
"But overall, the health care system remains fundamentally lacking and the Monitors’ report documents continued adverse outcomes that show prisoners remain at risk," Judge Silver added.
One of the biggest problems outlined in the order was staffing. The filing indicates that ADCRR attributed issues to NaphCare, the private provider contracted to deliver health care services to prisons in the state.
12News reached out to to the ACLU, ADCRR and NaphCare on Thursday and is waiting to hear back.
The order details that parties in the case should be ready to address compliance at a status hearing on Friday, March 15.
New records show that NaphCare filed a motion to intervene in the case on Thursday after the order was issued.
The lawsuit has spanned more than a decade in federal court and was inherited by current state prison director Ryan Thornell, who was appointed by Gov. Katie Hobbs in January 2023.
The original class-action lawsuit filed back in March 2012 focused on more than a dozen inmates who detailed problems with medical, mental and dental health care; some inmates alleged they were not getting care or treatment quickly enough.
It also highlighted concerns for inmates in isolation. They’re represented by organizations like the ACLU and Arizona Center for Disability Law among other plaintiffs who are bringing in new witnesses to argue that the same problems from 2012 are still happening to this day.
Both sides were supposed to go to trial in 2014 but instead reached a settlement. In it, the ADCRR agreed to meet certain benchmarks for standards of care.
However, a judge found ADCRR in contempt of court twice for missing the marks over the past few years. The first time was in 2018 and the state was fined $1.4 million. The second time was in February 2021 and the state was fined $1.1 million.
In July 2021, the judge threw out the settlement agreement and ordered each side to go to trial later that year.
In 2022, Judge Silver ruled that ADCRR was violating inmates' rights and in 2023, she issued the benchmarks ADCRR was required to meet.
*Editor's Note: The above video is from an earlier broadcast.*
UP TO SPEED