PHOENIX (AP) - A judge overseeing a legal settlement over the quality of health care in Arizona's prisons has threatened to impose as much as $1.7 million in additional contempt-of-court fines against the state for failing to adequately improve inmate care.
Judge Roslyn Silver said in an order Monday that the state remains noncompliant with many elements of the 4-year-old settlement, including some compliance measures on which the state had previously been found by a court to have fallen short.
Nearly a year ago, another judge found Corrections Director Charles Ryan to be in civil contempt of court and fined the state $1.4 million for noncompliance.
The judge set a July 1 deadline for the state to fully comply.
The Department of Corrections didn't respond to requests for comment.
