Judge rules Arizona violates prisoners’ rights with poor care

(KYMA, KECY/ AP News) - A judge ruled Arizona has been violating the constitutional rights of incarcerated people in state-run prisons by providing them with inadequate medical and mental health care.

In a verdict late last week, U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver concluded the state’s inaction showed it is acting with “deliberate indifference” to the risks of inadequate care and said the state has adopted a health care system for prisoners that has led to preventable deaths.

She said there aren’t enough health employees to care for the roughly 25,000 incarcerated people housed in state-run prisons and that corrections officials have made no significant attempts to fix the understaffing problem.

The ruling said prisoners aren’t getting timely access to emergency treatment, medications, treatment for chronic diseases and specialty care.

Under the current system, nurses are the first — and often the only -- medical professionals available to see prisoners, and some of them are undertrained to provide the correct treatment.

The judge is expected to order remedies in response to the constitutional violations.