Citing "pervasive material breaches" of Arizona's prison health care class action settlement, U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver rescinded the settlement and ordered the Department of Corrections and prisoner attorneys to prepare for a trial in an order issued on Friday.
The Parsons v. Ryan settlement was certified more than 6 years ago in 2015. The state agreed to a set of performance benchmarks that were created to raise the standard of health care in the 10 state-run prisons.
On Friday, Judge Silver issued an order setting that agreement aside, saying the Department of Corrections and its private health care contractors had repeatedly failed to meet the settlement conditions.