U.S. Supreme Court justice declines to block takeover of Arizona's prisons healthcare

In a brief order Thursday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan rejected a last-ditch bid by the state to delay a federal judge's order putting Annette Chambers-Smith in charge of ensuring that the 25,000 inmates in state-run prisons get the physical and mental health care they need, and to which the judge said they are constitutionally entitled.

Attorneys for the state and Ryan Thornell, director of the Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, went to Kagan after U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver declined to reconsider her order. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals also refused to intercede.

Emergency petitions to the Supreme Court like the one filed by the state go to the duty justice over that area of the country. For Arizona, that is Kagan.

Most immediately, the lack of relief from Kagan leaves no barrier to Chambers-Smith, a former Ohio prisons chief, taking over on Oct. 19.

Silver has given her the same powers over the healthcare system that Thornell now has, subject only to the judge's review. Those include the authority to hire, fire, supervise, promote, transfer, discipline and determine the pay of all prison employees and contract staff who provide care.

Potentially more significant, Chambers-Smith can negotiate and terminate the contract the state now has with NaphCare, which has been providing much of the direct care.

Dr. Marc Stern, named by Silver to serve as her expert after years of litigation, reported that the quality of care provided by NaphCare "remains woefully inadequate.''

Stern and his team also warned that "patients are in daily danger'' and said there are "pervasive dangers in the delivery of (mental health) care.''

They also said Thornell had not taken necessary steps to ensure adequate staffing and that, even eight months after Silver issued a 2023 injunction ordering the state to do better, staffing remains "dangerously low.''

Silver put Chambers-Smith in charge of health care for up to five years, with the state paying her $500,000 annual salary.

Governor 'disagrees' with decision 

Gov. Katie Hobbs "disagrees with the Supreme Court decision,'' said her press aide Christian Slater. "Elected officials should decide how Arizona's prison system is run, not bureaucrats appointed by federal judges.''

Slater did not note in his statement that this case has now been going on for 14 years.

Kagan's decision declining to delay Silver's order does not end any ability of the state to try to escape that oversight in the interim. All it does is clear the way for Chambers-Smith to take charge of the health system while Arizona pursues a separate appeal to the 9th Circuit.

The judges there have agreed to hear the state's arguments that Silver exceeded her legal authority by appointing a receiver.

But that hearing is not scheduled to occur until Dec. 7, leaving the receiver in place in the interim.

In pursuing their appeal, lawyers for the state intend to argue that appointment of a receiver is something that should occur when there are no other remedies a court can use to force compliance. In this case, they said, Silver has other options like imposing fines.

But Corene Kendrick, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who is representing inmates along with the Prison Law Project, noted that Silver has tried that, holding the state in contempt and imposing millions of dollars in fines. Yet even state officials concede that the care being provided right now and the staffing that is available have yet to comply with the court orders.

There are other claims the state is expected to make.

One is that things have gotten better since Silver issued a 200-page ruling in 2022 when she found that the care provided in Arizona prisons is "plainly grossly inadequate'' and that state officials were acting "with deliberate indifference'' to the substantial risk of harm to inmates.

She also cited testimony from David Shinn, the state prison director at the time, which she said "provides compelling evidence of knowledge of the failures but a refusal to take meaningful measures to correct systemic flaws.''

All that resulted in her 2023 injunction ordering the state to fix the problems.

What's changed, the state's attorneys continue to argue, is that Shinn is gone, as Hobbs, newly elected as governor in 2023, replaced him with Thornell. They also say the department has more than doubled its healthcare spending and grown its healthcare staff by more than 50%.

Prisoners' advocates cheer decision

On the other side of the equation, though, is the state's admission it still isn't in compliance with the 2023 injunction. Silver, in deciding a receiver is necessary, said "the record is rife with examples of their willful inability to institute constitutionally adequate healthcare in compliance with the injunction.''

Kendrick cheered Kagan's decision Thursday.

"Arizona has spent years fighting accountability at every turn while people in its prisons continue to suffer and die from preventable causes,'' she said. "Today's decision clears the way for a receiver to do what the state has failed to do for more than a decade.''

Maya Abela, deputy legal director at Disability Rights Arizona, agreed that Kagan's action will finally pave the way for a receiver to require the state to do what Silver ordered years ago.

"Further delay would have only served to increase the risk of harm to incapacitated people in Arizona's state-operated prisons and we are glad the court recognized that this must not be allowed to occur," Abela said.