Middle Ground Prison Reform

On 2/19/26, the district court of Arizona, Hon. Roslyn Silver, ordered that the Arizona DOC healthcare system be placed under the control of a receiver. This means that the court will appoint an expert to make all decisions about the delivery of health care to Arizona's prisoners (private prisons are not included in the order) and the receiver will report directly to the Judge, and not to anyone else. DOC Director Thornell immediately announced that he would "vigorously" appeal the decision, so it may take some time for the receiver to be in place. Still, she appears to have anticipated an appeal and she documented her reasons for taking this drastic final-effort approach in a scathing 128-page order, which fell just short of calling Thornell and his lawyers "liars," referring to information and statistics they have reported to the court ever since the litigation began in 2012. This case has cost millions of dollars (mostly paid to lawyers on both sides) and the receiver will be paid by tax dollars, too. ALL because the Arizona DOC, no matter who is at the helm of this agency, refuses to do what it needs to do to provide constitutionally adequate medical and mental healthcare to prisoners under its custody and control. Rest assured, this order represents a SEA CHANGE once it is implemented. In 2005, the state of California Prison system was placed under receivership for its healthcare system, and all reports since then appear to demonstrate vast improvement. We are hoping for the same outcome for Arizona's prisoners. In 2012, when the complaint was initially filed, the ACLU made a decision NOT to include the private prisons as defendants, and that is why this order does not apply to prisoners who are in private prisons.

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The 2026 legislative session only began the second week of January. While there are some promising bills introduced, including one which would allow home confinement for some low-level, non-violent offenders during the final year of their sentence, and one bill which would fund the previously authorized independent corrections oversight office, it is important to understand that NO BILLS HAVING TO DO WITH PRISON, SENTENCING OR CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM have actually passed into law as of mid-February. All bills must pass through at least 2 committees in the House or Senate, then they must pass through the entire House and the entire Senate, and then the bill must be signed into law by the Governor as a final step. So, none of passed into law. Rumors about home confinement laws going into effect in a few weeks or months are simply untrue. Don't spread false rumors, please. If you have a question, send us an email to: [email protected] and we will respond. Also, make sure when you ask us about a specific bill number that you are referring to an active bill from the 2026 legislative session. For previous sessions and previous bills that have "died" during those previous sessions, they have no relevance in 2026 at all. Once a bill dies, even if the exact subject matter is reintroduced during a new, subsequent legislative session, it is assigned a DIFFERENT bill number. Please only refer to bill numbers attached to bills that are introduced in the current 2026 session.

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