ADCRR Response To Filing of Motion For Receivership

PHOENIX – ADCRR refutes the characterization of the healthcare provided in Arizona correctional facilities in the Motion for Receivership filed by the Plaintiffs in Jensen v. Thornell on February 11, 2025 in the U.S. District Court.  

While the Plaintiffs may not be interested in drawing attention to the significant progress being made by the Department to improve the delivery and expansion of healthcare services across prisons, the Department certainly is. 

These improvements are numerous and include expanded access to necessary types of treatment, the opening of new medical housing units and in-patient mental health units, greater communication and responsiveness to healthcare issues faced by the inmate population, and many more, all of which are documented in reports and observations, including by the Plaintiffs, in court filings, and through interactions and feedback from the inmate population and stakeholders. 

The systemic transformation that has occurred over the last two years is a reflection of the ADCRR team’s commitment to reimagining corrections. The improvement of services and conditions of confinement are and will remain a top priority. 

Unfortunately, the Plaintiffs in the Jensen case refuse to acknowledge this progress. Instead, they wastefully devote what appears to be an endless amount of time, energy, and money, unnecessarily driving up the cost to Arizona taxpayers at a rate of $2.2 million dollars in Court and Plaintiff monitoring costs from April 2023 through September 2024 and increasing the FY 2025 budget to nearly $2.5 million for Court and Plaintiff monitoring costs, separate and apart from the FY 2025 healthcare budget of nearly $400 million.

Instead of recognizing the irrefutable change happening across the ADCRR, the Plaintiffs continue to move the goalpost. They focus on the reputation and circumstances of the past rather than recognizing or even supporting the good work of the present. 

The question Arizona tax payers and lawmakers should ask themselves is, why does the State continue to allow the Plaintiffs to gloss over facts demonstrating the ADCRR system is revitalized, right in front of their watchful eyes, a shadow version of its former self? And, how much are we willing to allow these out-of-state influences to dictate what is good for our state? With a constantly moving goal, and by relying on outdated and biased reports, the Plaintiffs keep the State of Arizona and its hardworking citizens paying, at the expense of other needs; to what end? To turn Arizona's correctional healthcare system into California’s? A system which has been under direct management of a receiver since 2006, has increased healthcare spending to over $41k per person each year, and remains under receiver oversight for healthcare 19 years later.

Their inability to accept the substantial progress made is an unfortunate and costly distraction that ignores the good work happening across Arizona and drains the State of its much needed funds and resources. A receiver is not the answer.

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