Gov. Katie Hobbs pushes back on federal takeover of Arizona prison health care

PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs sharply criticized a federal judge’s decision to seize control of health care operations in the state’s prisons, calling the ruling costly, unnecessary and dismissive of recent improvements.

“I strongly disagree with the court’s decision, which overlooks the significant progress the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry has made in recent years,” Hobbs said in a Feb. 26 statement. “This system was in crisis for a decade, and we’ve worked tirelessly to turn things around. While progress is not achieved overnight, the improvements we’ve made in a short amount of time are undeniable.”

U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver ordered Arizona’s prison health care system into receivership, transferring authority over medical and mental health services to a court appointed official. The decision followed years of litigation alleging that Arizona’s prisons exposed incarcerated people to unsafe care and preventable suffering.

According to the Associated Press, Silver concluded that the state had still not achieved even “a semblance” of compliance with court-ordered reforms nearly 14 years after the lawsuit began.

She wrote that continuing under the current system “would be nothing short of judicial indulgence of deeply entrenched unconstitutional conduct,” citing ongoing risks that she described as “an intolerable grave and immediate threat of continuing harm.”

Hobbs says Arizona’s prison system is improving

However, Hobbs said state leaders have been working hard to improve conditions in the state’s prison system.

“Over the past three years, we’ve made over $1 billion in historic investments to improve health care, staffing and programming,” she said. “Under Director Thornell’s leadership, we’ve tripled the number of physicians, expanded access to life-saving treatments, appointed the first Women’s Service Administrator and introduced Arizona-minded initiatives like heat mitigation — things that federal overseers just don’t understand.”

ADCRR Director Ryan Thornell warned that an outside takeover would impose new expenses on taxpayers without a clear end date. He called the receivership “exorbitantly expensive” and said it “risks disrupting the significant progress we have made.”

“Over the past three years, ADCRR has made significant, measurable improvements in health care delivery and infrastructure across Arizona’s prison complexes. We now have approximately 1,340 full-time equivalent health care staff, compared to 841 at the time of the court’s 2022 order. This has included additional doctors, nurse practitioners, physicians’ assistants, mental health staff, and other health care staff. In total, the state has invested $1.3 billion in health care services for prison health care over the past 3 years,” said Thornell.

The decade-long court battle that led to receivership

The ruling stems from a 2012 class action lawsuit accusing the state of providing dangerously inadequate medical, dental and mental health care. The state reached a settlement in 2014, but the court later issued multiple contempt findings and millions of dollars in fines after Arizona repeatedly failed to meet its obligations.

A 2022 trial led Silver to conclude that Arizona had violated prisoners’ constitutional rights by failing to provide minimally adequate care, findings that formed the basis for a sweeping injunction the following year. But the judge found that the department “hasn’t gotten” meaningful compliance, despite years of oversight attempts.

Lawyers representing prisoners praised the receivership as long overdue.

David Fathi of the ACLU’s National Prison Project said the ruling allows an independent authority to finally “implement the systemic changes necessary” to bring the system up to constitutional standards. He called the takeover a “life‑saving intervention.”

The order requires the state and plaintiffs to submit up to five candidates for receiver within 60 days. That official will gain operational control of all medical and mental health care in the state’s prisons, with the power to direct staffing, spending and compliance. The receivership has no timeline for conclusion.

However, Silver found that despite new investments, the system continued to exhibit chronic deficiencies, including inadequate staffing levels, delayed emergency care and continuing risks that she said the department has not effectively addressed.

Arizona’s prisons house roughly 25,000 people. The ruling does not apply to individuals incarcerated in private facilities.

“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,” said Thornell. “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.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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