Highlights

A federal judge is racing to seat a receiver over Arizona's prison healthcare system before July 1, when the state's new fiscal year begins and budget negotiations between Gov. Katie Hobbs and Republican lawmakers will determine whether the system gets the money it needs to meet constitutional minimums.

U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver ordered attorneys for the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry and for the plaintiff inmates to interview former Ohio corrections director Annette Chambers-Smith and submit written reports on her candidacy by June 1. Silver said she will also interview Chambers-Smith herself. The Department of Corrections recommended Chambers-Smith as its sole candidate; the inmates' attorneys put forward two other former state corrections directors but agreed to support her.

The receiver's authority, once appointed, would be sweeping. Silver's May 11 order states the receiver "shall be granted all powers vested by law in the Director of the ADCRR, as they relate to the administration, control, management, operation, and financing of the provision of health care services to class members." That includes the power to negotiate and terminate contracts, implement permanent policy changes, manage resources, and participate in budgeting.

The urgency is driven by money. Hobbs has asked the Legislature to add $108 million to the prison healthcare budget for fiscal year 2027. The Republican-controlled Legislature passed a budget earlier this month that did not include that funding. Hobbs vetoed it. Senate Majority Leader John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, declined to explain the omission beyond noting the state is appealing Silver's receiver order and that acting may be premature. He called Silver's February receivership decision "a federal usurpation of state government."

The case has been in federal court since 2012, when attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union, the Prison Law Office, and other prisoner rights groups filed suit alleging grossly inadequate care that harmed and killed inmates. The state settled in 2014 but was found in contempt twice and fined millions of dollars over the following decade for failing to meet the agreement's terms. Silver threw out the settlement in 2019 because of the ADCRR's "pervasive material breaches." After a 15-day trial in late 2021, she issued a 2022 ruling finding that care at state prisons was "plainly, grossly inadequate" and that officials acted "with deliberate indifference" to the risk of harm to inmates. She issued a staffing injunction the following year, and in February 2026 ordered the receivership.

In her 83-page February order, Silver wrote that after nearly 14 years of litigation, continued judicial oversight without a receiver "would be nothing short of judicial indulgence of deeply entrenched unconstitutional conduct."

Hobbs has not disputed that history. In February she said the state had made more than $1 billion in new investments over three years, tripling the number of physicians. She argued Silver's order "imposes unrealistic demands and timelines" given recruiting and hiring challenges. Her spokesman did not respond to questions about whether she would sign a budget that omits the $108 million.

Current staffing reports filed with the court show the depth of the problem. Arizona's prison health contractor, NaphCare, has 14 of 34 required doctors on staff, 7.25 of 29.7 required psychiatrists, 70 fewer registered nurses than the 372 required, and 28 of 102 required emergency medical technicians. Only three of 13 medical classifications are at or above target levels.

Arizona is spending about $380 million a year on inmate healthcare out of a $1.6 billion corrections budget for fiscal year 2026. The state has just over 34,000 total inmates; about 25,200 are held in the nine state prisons covered by the lawsuit, with roughly 9,400 in private facilities not subject to the case.

Chambers-Smith ran the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections from 2019 through March 2026, overseeing 28 prisons holding about 46,000 inmates and a healthcare budget of $375 million out of a $1.5 billion total corrections budget. Ohio faced a similar class-action lawsuit filed in 2002 and settled it by agreeing to overhaul its prison healthcare system. David Singleton, now a law professor at the University of the District of Columbia who spent 21 years as executive director of the Ohio Justice & Policy Center and helped oversee that settlement, described Chambers-Smith as the corrections system's lead point person in carrying out the reforms. He told Capitol Media Services she was "incredibly pragmatic, solutions-oriented" and walked the line between inmate needs and institutional realities "very, very well."

ACLU attorney Corene Kendrick, who has worked on the Arizona case for more than a decade, said Silver had no choice but to act. She attributed a significant share of the staffing crisis to healthcare privatization, which Arizona adopted through a provision inserted into the 2009 state budget. "It's done rarely, but, as (Judge Silver) said in her order in February …. she can't just sit by and sit on her hands and watch the state of Arizona and the Department of Corrections ignore federal court orders and ignore the Constitution, and people are dying, and so she needed to act," Kendrick said.

The state has filed a notice of appeal on the receivership order but agreed to hold that appeal until a receiver is actually appointed. A separate appeal of Silver's June 2025 staffing order was set for argument before a 9th Circuit panel on May 18.

Who is Annette Chambers-Smith?

Chambers-Smith served as Ohio corrections director from 2019 through March 2026 and held other Ohio corrections posts for two decades before that, including overseeing prison healthcare. After leaving the director role she began working with Gov. Mike DeWine on criminal justice policy. She was the only candidate recommended by the Arizona Department of Corrections; the inmates' attorneys agreed to support her after initially proposing two other former state corrections directors.

Silver's written reports deadline is June 1, with her own interview of Chambers-Smith to follow before a formal appointment.

Sources

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  1. azcapitoltimes.com retrieved 18/05/2026 18:52

Authored by The Scottsdale Signal. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 18/05/2026 18:52. Every claim traces to a source.