Gov. Katie Hobbs formed a special commission Wednesday to review operations of the state prison system.

 The Associated Press file

PHOENIX — Gov. Katie Hobbs formed a special commission Wednesday to review operations of the state prison system, saying problems there have been ignored for years.

The panel is charged with looking at everything from security and staffing levels to the ability of inmates to speak with family members and access basic necessities like nutrition, medicines and sanitary products. A preliminary report is due Nov. 15.

But the Democratic governor made it clear she’s not going to wait that long to address one particular issue on the commission’s agenda: Accessibility and quality of medical care and mental health programs.

That requires more immediate attention, Hobbs said, at least partly because the state is under federal court order to fix the system.

In a ruling last year, U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver declared the care provided by state prisons is “plainly grossly inadequate’’ and state officials are acting “with deliberate indifference’’ to the substantial risk of harm to inmates.

Silver said top prison officials were aware of conditions that resulted in serious, and unnecessary, physical injury and death to inmates and actively ignored the problems.

Years-long litigation

The lawsuit was filed in 2012 on behalf of inmates. The state agreed to a settlement signed in 2015, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey’s first year in office, promising to do better. And the state was fined $1.4 million in 2018 for failing to live up to the performance measures to which it had agreed, with Silver imposing another $1.1 million penalty in 2021.

David Shinn, who was Ducey’s director of the Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, is gone, having been replaced by Hobbs with Ryan Thornell, former deputy corrections director in Maine.

“Our office is actively engaging with this case to make sure that we are addressing the issues that have been brought up, which really have largely been ignored until now,’’ Hobbs said.

“We intend to focus on what needs to be done and turn this around and provide humane treatment to folks in our care,’’ she said. “We’re under, now, judge’s orders. And they’ve been ignored.’’

Less clear, Hobbs said, is whether there has been a cover-up of the deficiencies in the prison system.

“That’s part of what we need to find out,’’ she said.

Silver, in her 200-page order last year, definitely had some thoughts on the issue. She said prison officials had purposely ignored unconstitutional conditions in the system that is responsible for nearly 34,000 inmates.

“Despite years of knowledge, driven by this litigation and defendants’ monitoring of private healthcare contractors’ performance, defendants have in fact made no significant attempts to substantively change the health care system and compel sufficient staffing,’’ Silver wrote.

“Thus, defendants are acting with deliberate indifference to plaintiffs’ serious medical and mental health care needs,’’ she continued. The judge said testimony from Shinn and others during the trial “provides compelling evidence of knowledge of the failures but a refusal to take meaningful measures to correct systemic flaws.’’

Silver accused Shinn of being more interested in protecting himself from criticism than protecting inmates.

Hobbs: Urgency has been lacking

Hobbs agreed with Silver’s overall assessment.

“I don’t think there is any disagreement in here that there has been a lack of transparency into these really serious corrections issues, and a lack of, really, any urgency to deal with them and change the way that we’re treating folks that are in our custody in the state,’’ the new governor said. She said there’s a “myriad of problems that have continued to exist.’’

“That’s why we’re bringing in a director who’s focused on reform,’’ Hobbs said.

The governor said Thornell is “absolutely aware of the issues he’s walking into with this department.’’

For the moment, though, he is simply Hobbs’ nominee. She has to get him confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate, though he can serve up to a year without confirmation.

Hobbs said her office is “in the process’’ of sending his nomination to the Senate, along with those of others she has tapped to head state agencies. She said she is counting on lawmakers approving her choices.

“We believe they are focused on their role as public servants,’’ she said. “I am hopeful they will give my nominees a fair hearing.’’

One question already is being raised is that Thornell has not dealt with anything the size of Arizona’s system. At last report, Maine had fewer than 2,200 inmates.

“It’s surprising they’re saying this without the nomination paperwork in front of them,’’ Hobbs said.

But the Governor’s Office hasn’t provided much more in details about his background other than his position in Maine.

In a news release when he was named, Hobbs said Thornell “has led significant initiatives that re-envision traditional policies and approaches to incarceration, reforming a wide variety of adult corrections areas, challenging the status quo, and implementing 21st century, normalized corrections practices.’’

The commission Hobbs is forming includes two members of the House and two members of the Senate, from different political parties, and a representative of an “inmate advocacy organization’’ that the governor will select. Others include a physician, a mental health professional, a representative of an organization of corrections officers, as well as previously incarcerated men and women and a close relative of someone who served at least three years behind bars.

Not ‘isolated occurrences,’ judge said

Whether replacing Shinn is enough may be an open question.

After Silver issued her order last year, Walt Blackman, then a Republican state representative from Snowflake, told Capitol Media Services that Shinn was clearly ignoring obvious problems. But he said firings shouldn’t stop with Shinn and that the state needs to “clean house’’ of deputy directors and wardens who have been there for years and are running their facilities as if they are independent operations.

“So instead of taking their directions from the director ... they are doing their own thing,’’ Blackman said. “And that’s a problem.’’

In fighting the lawsuit under Ducey, attorneys for the state did not dispute the multiple examples Silver cited of inmates who died or were harmed due to lack of medical care. Instead, they argued these were “simply isolated occurrences’’ that do not show a pattern or practice of providing deficient health care.

The judge wasn’t buying it.

“The overwhelming evidence shows these cases indicate the opposite,’’ Silver wrote, pointing out the number of encounters each of these inmates had with the prison medical system, including many different personnel.

“It is impossible to conclude their treatment represented isolated occurrences,’’ she said. “Rather, these outcomes show that if a prisoner develops as serious health condition while in ADCRR custody, he or she is at substantial risk of grievous harm or death due to medical personnel’s inability to accurately assess and diagnose such conditions.’’

Federal correctional officers staged a protest in response to an Associated Press investigation that exposed how the Bureau of Prisons repeatedly promoted an official who was accused of beating several Black inmates. The officers gathered in front of the Bureau of Prisons' regional office in Stockton, California. The picket comes as members of Congress, including the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, are demanding answers from the agency's director after AP's reporting on deputy regional director Thomas Ray Hinkle. Hinkle was repeatedly promoted, most recently to one of the highest posts in the agency. And this has happened despite his being accused of beating multiple Black inmates in the 1990s. Since then, people who know Hinkle say he has repeatedly boasted about the beatings and being part of a violent, racist group of officers that called themselves "The Cowboys." An Associated Press investigation has found the Bureau of Prisons has continued to promote Hinkle despite numerous red flags.

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Howard Fischer is a veteran journalist who has been reporting since 1970 and covering state politics and the Legislature since 1982. Follow him on Twitter at @azcapmedia or email azcapmedia@gmail.com.