雅克·比洛 凤凰城电——美国最高法院驳回了亚利桑那州在最后关头提出的请求。该州试图阻止法院下令接管其监狱医疗运营工作的安排启动。此前，法院认定该州为在押人员提供的照护未达到宪法要求，而且拖延了十余年才进行必要整改。
JACQUES BILLEAUD PHOENIX — The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an eleventh-hour bid by the state of Arizona to block the upcoming start of a court-ordered takeover of healthcare operations in its prisons after the state was found to have provided constitutionally inadequate care to incarcerated people and dragged its feet for over a decade in making required improvements.
该州请求推迟接管起始日期，周四遭最高法院大法官埃莱娜·卡agan驳回。根据安排，一名外部惩教专业人员将于10月19日接管2.5万名在押人员的医疗管理工作。
The state’s request to delay the start date was denied Thursday by Justice Elena Kagan, leaving an outside corrections professional to take over healthcare management for 25,000 incarcerated people on Oct. 19.
亚利桑那州此前请求法院推迟接管日期，同时就接管决定以及任命前俄亥俄州惩教局局长安内特·钱伯斯-史密斯负责领导接管工作的决定提出上诉。最高法院驳回该请求之前，下级法院已经拒绝了这一延期申请。
Arizona had asked the courts to delay the start date while it appealed both the takeover decision and the appointment of former Ohio corrections director Annette Chambers-Smith as the leader of the effort. Arizona officials brought the delay request to the Supreme Court after it was rejected by lower courts.
过去14年来，亚利桑那州持续受到投诉困扰。投诉称，该州的囚犯医疗体系管理粗劣且冷漠，尽管法院认定这一体系使囚犯面临伤害和本可避免的死亡风险，该州却多次未能加以改善。
Over the last 14 years, Arizona has been dogged by complaints that its healthcare operation for prisoners was run shoddily and callously and that it repeatedly failed to improve a system that was found to have exposed prisoners to harm and preventable deaths.
该州曾在2014年的一项和解协议中承诺全面改革囚犯医疗保健服务，但很快被指责未能履行改善照护的承诺。此后，该州被处以超过200万美元的藐视法庭罚款。美国地区法官罗斯琳·西尔弗最终撤销了这项协议，并解释称，惩教官员对推动改革兴趣寥寥。
The state vowed to overhaul medical and healthcare services for prisoners in a 2014 settlement, but was soon accused of failing to keep its promises to improve care. That led to over $2 million in contempt of court fines against the state and, eventually, the revocation of the agreement by U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver, who explained corrections officials had shown little interest in making the changes.
法官随后在2021年的审判后作出不利于州政府的裁决，发布禁令，要求惩教当局纠正违反宪法之处。今年早些时候，Silver在认定该州经过十多年的诉讼，仍未就法院命令作出的调整及遵守美国宪法实现哪怕最低限度的合规，并且因医疗保健方面的系统性缺陷，囚犯仍面临伤害和遭受严重痛苦的威胁后，下令接管。亚利桑那州惩教、康复与重返社会部周四没有立即回应置评请求。
The judge then ruled against the state after a 2021 trial, issuing an injunction that required corrections authorities to fix the constitutional violations. Earlier this year, Silver ordered the takeover after concluding the state hadn’t gotten a semblance of compliance with court-ordered changes and the U.S. Constitution after more than a decade of litigation and that prisoners remained exposed to grave threats of harm and suffering because of systematic deficiencies in providing health care. The Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Re-entry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday’s decision.
这起关于在押人员医疗保健的诉讼涵盖亚利桑那州九所州办监狱，但不包括近1万名在私人监狱服刑的亚利桑那州囚犯。
The lawsuit over healthcare for incarcerated people covers Arizona’s nine state-run prisons but not the nearly 10,000 Arizona inmates doing time in private prisons.