PHOENIX (AP) - The Arizona Department of Corrections urged an appeals court on Tuesday to throw out a 2018 contempt-of-court ruling against now-retired Corrections Director Charles Ryan for failing to follow through on promises in a legal settlement to improve prisoner health care.
Timothy Berg, an attorney representing the agency, told the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that the judge who found Ryan in civil contempt and imposed a $1.4 million fine against the state for noncompliance didn’t have contempt powers available to enforce the nearly 5-year-old settlement.
The settlement was a private agreement between the state and prisoners, not a court order enforceable through contempt powers, Berg said. “Therefore, contempt is not an option to enforce it,” Berg said.
Berg also argued that while Ryan was found in civil contempt of court - a finding meant to coerce people into following court orders - the sanctions imposed by the judge were, in effect, more serious criminal-contempt punishments that would have required a trial by jury, not a judge.
The state has been dogged by complaints that it has been dragging its feet for years in complying with the settlement.
Earlier this year, a judge raised the possibility of throwing out the settlement and threatened a second contempt fine, which could be as high as $1.2 million, for its continued noncompliance.
Additionally, the inmates earlier this month sought an escalation in the litigation by asking the judge to take over health care operations in all state-run prisons and appoint an official to run them.
Attorneys for the inmates had argued the first fine resulted in no improvement in the state’s performance. The judge hasn’t yet ruled on the inmates’ takeover request.
Corene Kendrick, an attorney representing the 34,000 inmates in state-run prisons, told the appeals court that the lower court had the authority to use contempt of court powers in enforcing the settlement and noted that the contempt ruling came after years of noncompliance by the state.
Kendrick argued the contempt ruling was aimed at coercing the state to follow through on the promises in the settlement, noting that the state was later able to satisfy some of the improvements it had promised to make.
But lawyers for the inmates have said the state remains noncompliant on several performance measures, such as ensuring newly prescribed medications are provided to inmates within two days and making medical providers tell inmates about the results of pathology reports and other diagnostic studies within five days of receiving such records.
The settlement arose out of a lawsuit that alleged that Arizona’s 10 state-run prisons didn’t meet the basic requirements for providing adequate medical and mental health care. It said some prisoners complained that their cancer went undetected or that they were told to pray to be cured after begging for treatment.
The state denied allegations that it was providing inadequate care, and the lawsuit was settled without the state acknowledging any wrongdoing.
Though the state paid the $1.4 million fine that was issued last summer, the company that at the time provided health care services within the prisons later reimbursed the state for that amount.
Ryan retired earlier this month.
The appeals court didn’t say when it would issue its ruling.
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Follow Jacques Billeaud at twitter.com/jacquesbilleaud.
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