U.S. Judge Orders Arizona Sheriff to Improve Jails
Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., who has built a national reputation with his get-tough tactics, and county health officials have violated the Constitution by depriving jail inmates of adequate medical screening and care, feeding them unhealthy food and housing them in unsanitary conditions, a federal judge has ruled.
Sheriff Arpaio, whose jurisdiction over the Phoenix metropolitan area includes one of the country’s largest jail systems, must make a number of changes under an order issued Wednesday by Judge Neil V. Wake of Federal District Court in Phoenix.
Judge Wake said that disciplinary practices against mentally ill inmates had caused “needless suffering and deterioration” and that the jails must ensure they receive prescription medication.
Inmates who spend more than 24 hours in initial processing, Judge Wake said, must have a bed or mattress and receive food that meets nutritional guidelines. Many inmates, he added, consume moldy bread and rotten fruit, and the “court does not believe” a jail dietitian’s claim that it was adequate.
Unclean cells, Judge Wake said, pose “an unconstitutional health risk.”
Sheriff Arpaio, a Republican who is seeking a fifth term in November, has drawn a great deal of attention in recent years for a crackdown on illegal immigrants.
But Judge Wake’s ruling throws light on Sheriff Arpaio’s handling of the county jails, which brought him notoriety for tactics like building a sweltering “tent city” for convicts and cladding them in black-and-white striped uniforms and pink underwear.
The ruling does not apply to inmates of the tent city, only to detainees awaiting trial in other facilities, who make up nearly two-thirds of the 10,000 inmates housed in the jails each day.
“This is a total victory for the hundreds of thousands of inmates who are going to be coming to Sheriff Joe’s jails in the next couple years,” said Debbie Hill, a lawyer who worked on the case with the American Civil Liberties Union. “We will ensure they will have adequate supervision, mental health care and food.”
In a court hearing last summer, lawyers for the A.C.L.U. gave the example of a mentally ill inmate who was denied medication and severely beaten by other inmates.
Experts who testified for the A.C.L.U. said the jails had substandard cells and lacked adequate supervision and health screening for inmates.
Last month, the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, based in Chicago, withdrew its accreditation of the jails’ health system. But the accreditation remains in place while county officials appeal, saying the action was taken without sufficient evidence.
During Sheriff Arpaio’s tenure, Maricopa County has paid at least $30 million, by the sheriff’s count, and up to $43 million, according to local news media, as a result of lawsuits alleging deaths, injury, mistreatment and other claims in the jails.
A deputy chief in the sheriff’s office, Jack MacIntyre, said officials would not decide whether to appeal Judge Wake’s ruling until they had reviewed it completely. But he said Judge Wake had misunderstood jail procedures in some instances or imposed measures that were impractical or would be an economic burden.
“The A.C.L.U. flies into town,” Chief MacIntyre said, “wrings their hands and moans and groans, and gets out of town without making anything work.”
Over all, Chief MacIntyre said, conditions have improved since a consent decree was first placed on the jails 30 years ago. In some instances, Judge Wake agreed, lifting certain requirements at some facilities.
In 2001 Sheriff Arpaio went to court seeking to have the decree lifted, setting off seven years of litigation that culminated in Judge Wake’s ruling. A hearing is scheduled for December to determine out how to carry it out.
Betty Adams, the director of the county agency that provides health care to inmates, said the agency would review the ruling and make appropriate changes.
“There is always room for improvement,” Ms. Adams said, “but we feel the health care is adequate.”
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