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FILE - This July 23, 2014 file photo shows a state prison in Florence, Ariz. A judge has threatened to impose a third round of contempt of court fines against the state of Arizona if it doesn't follow through on promises in a legal settlement to improve health care for its 34,000 prisoners. lessFILE - This July 23, 2014 file photo shows a state prison in Florence, Ariz. A judge has threatened to impose a third round of contempt of court fines against the state of Arizona if it doesn't follow through ... morePhoto: File, AP
PHOENIX (AP) — A federal judge has threatened to impose a third round of contempt of court fines against the state of Arizona if it doesn’t follow through on promises in a legal settlement to improve health care for its 34,000 prisoners.
The state was fined $1.4 million in 2018 amid complaints that it dragged its feet for several years in complying with the 2014 settlement that resolved a lawsuit challenging the quality of health care in Arizona’s prisons. Nine months ago, Judge Roslyn Silver threatened a second fine that could reach as high as $1.2 million, though that penalty hasn’t yet been imposed.
The judge ratcheted up the pressure on the state late last week by giving the state a March 1 deadline to come into compliance or face a $100,000 fine for each violation. Silver also said the fines would recur each month until the state comes into compliance.
The judge doesn’t say how high the third round of fines could reach. But Corene Kendrick, a lawyer representing the prisoners, said the state would be fined $2.4 million if it were to be sanctioned based on the latest compliance report.
In each round, the per-violation amount of the threatened fines has sharply escalated, starting at $1,000 in 2018, followed by $50,000 in May and rising to $100,000 last week.
The Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry declined to comment on the latest threat of fines.
Kendrick said she believes the judge is trying to demonstrate to the state the importance of complying with the settlement. “They need to take this seriously and focus on providing health and not litigating everything in the courts,” Kendrick said.
Silver has been critical of the state’s failure to follow through on promises and several months ago ordered lawyers for the state and inmates to decide whether they want to throw out the settlement and instead bring the case to trial.
Lawyers for the inmates want to go to trial, while the state wants more negotiations. No decision has yet been made on whether to throw out the settlement.
A week ago, the state lost its appeal of the 2018 ruling that found then-Corrections Director Charles Ryan in civil contempt of court and fined the state $1.4 million for noncompliance.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the state’s claim that the judge who found Ryan in contempt didn’t have powers available to enforce the settlement because it was a private deal between the state and prisoners, not a court order.
Though the state paid the $1.4 million fine, the company that at the time provided health care services within the prisons reimbursed the state for that amount.
The settlement arose out of a lawsuit that alleged that the state's prisons didn't meet the basic requirements for providing adequate medical and mental health care.
It said some prisoners complained that their cancer went undetected or that they were told to pray to be cured after begging for treatment.
The state denied allegations that it was providing inadequate care, and the lawsuit was settled without the state acknowledging any wrongdoing.
An expert appointed by Silver to examine the method for determining whether the state is making the promised changes concluded that understaffing and inadequate funding are significant barriers in improving health care in Arizona’s prisons.
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