Federal Judge Orders Arizonia Sherif to Stop Putting Prisoner's Health in Danger

Source: Think Progress

by Sam P.K. Collins Posted on October 1, 2014 at 4:19 pm


Notoriously anti-immigrant Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is back in the national spotlight, and not for a good reason. On Tuesday, a federal judge extended a court order that mandates that Arpaio improve medical and mental health care in Maricopa County’s jails.

Last year, Arpaio and Maricopa County commissioners asked the federal court to lift a 2008 court order that charged the group with ending the overcrowding of facilities, providing adequate medical and mental health care, serving food that meets the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s dietary standards, and maintaining access to medication provided by staff.

During a hearing that ended in March, Neil Wake, the judge who issued the order, concluded that Arpaio and his colleagues fell short in meeting their obligations, signaling a need to keep the order intact. Prisoners’ rights organizations celebrated the recent decision as a step in the right direction for people harmed while under police supervision in the Arizona-based jail system.

“Last year, the Maricopa County jails requested an end to the 2008 court order, claiming that they’d done what was necessary for the detainees’ mental and physical health,” Eric Balaban, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project, wrote in a press release. “We said, ‘Not so fast.’


Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/10/01/3574844/federal-judge-arizona-jails/