ACLU accuses Arpaio of violating court orders by locking up the mentally impaired
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People too mentally impaired for trial need treatment not prison.
Maricopa County — notorious for anti-immigrant policing and barbaric jail conditions under Sheriff Joe Arpaio — is neglecting inmates in desperate need of mental health treatment, according to an ACLU motion filed on Friday. Eighteen months after Sheriff Joe Arpaio and county commissioners asked a federal judge to lift a 2008 court order, which required the county to provide adequate medical and mental health services for prisoners, people behind bars are still denied basic care. Arpaio’s efforts were futile, but little has changed…
Friday’s motion is an attempt to have the court rulings enforced and get patients the care they need. If it’s granted, those deemed severely mentally ill and incompetent for trial would be sent to psychiatric facilities outside of the jails.
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