WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court today rejected Arizona’s request to stop a court-appointed receiver from assuming control and management of health care provided to more than 25,000 people incarcerated in Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry (ADCRR) prisons. The decision allows the receivership ordered by a federal judge to move forward after a decade of litigation over unconstitutional and deadly conditions in Arizona prisons.
The lawsuit, Jensen v. Thornell, was filed in 2012 by the Prison Law Office, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), ACLU of Arizona, and Disability Rights Arizona. For more than a decade, ADCRR has been on notice about the systemic health care failures in its prisons and has yet to address the issue, despite multiple court orders and interventions. In July 2026, after years of reporting from independent experts detailing the deadly consequences of the state’s failure to comply, Judge Silver ordered a receiver to oversee prison health care.
“Arizona has spent years fighting accountability at every turn while people in its prisons continue to suffer and die from preventable causes,” said Corene Kendrick, deputy director of the ACLU’s National Prison Project. “During that time, the state has paid millions of dollars in fines and spent enormous sums litigating this case, and people in ADCRR custody pay the highest price of all. The question is not whether there is a crisis – that has been documented time and time again. The question is whether Arizona will stop fighting and start fixing it. Today’s decision clears the way for a receiver to do what the state has failed to do for more than a decade.
Court-appointed independent monitors have repeatedly documented preventable deaths, permanent injuries, and needless suffering because of the state’s failure to comply with court orders. In one case, a man died after ADCRR discontinued his necessary anti-seizure medication without reviewing his medical history. In another, a man who suffered a heart attack and underwent heart surgery died after the state failed to provide him follow up care or properly manage his medication. Monitors also documented five suicides in the first three months of 2024 that they concluded may have been prevented had the state followed the court’s orders.
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“This outcome will allow the critical and long-awaited work of the receiver to move forward, and for class members to obtain the relief the district court ordered years ago,” said Maya Abela, deputy legal director at Disability Rights Arizona. “Further delay would have only served to increase the risk of harm to incarcerated people in Arizona’s state-operated prisons, and we are glad the Court recognized that this must not be allowed to occur.”
“The decision from the Supreme Court confirms what we’ve known — a court-ordered receiver must be allowed to step in and address the serious deficiencies within the state prison system and ensure ADCRR is being held accountable to their constitutional duties,” said Tara DeGeorge, legal director at the ACLU of Arizona. “For far too long, people in ADCRR custody have been unjustly subject to inadequate medical and mental health care resulting in unnecessary medical complications and even death. ADCRR has had more than enough time to address the dire crisis — the only option left for successful reform is through a receivership.”
“Despite more than a decade of litigation, Arizona’s prisons continue to be plagued by widespread and shocking medical and mental health neglect. We are relieved that the Supreme Court’s decision today will allow the receiver to begin the necessary, life-saving work of reforming the prisons’ healthcare system,” said Sophie Hart, managing attorney at the Prison Law Office.