Judge Neil Wake takes action in the jail conditions lawsuit against Arpaio

Just days after Judge Wake indicated that Hart v. Arpaio will go to trial in August, Arpaio called a press conference to report that he has prevailed in seven lawsuits brought by individual inmates.

Those seven are a fraction of the more than 2,500 jail conditions lawsuits that have been filed against Arpaio in federal court alone, according to court dockets. Arpaio faces more than 200 additional lawsuits filed in the county court.

Eduardo Barraza

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• Joe Arpaio
• Dennis Wilenchik
• Debra Hill
• Crime and Law
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At the press conference, Arpaio compared his lawsuit expenses to the same expenses in Los Angeles. But his figures were grossly inaccurate. Arpaio quadrupled the actual amount Los Angeles has spent.

"Our jail lawsuits have cost $30 million in 16 years," Arpaio told reporters. "L.A.'s jails have cost $400 million in five years, so when people claim we're cruel and inhumane, it's all horse manure! Horse manure!"

In fact, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's lawsuits have cost less than $100 million, not $400 million, over the past five years, according to Rocky A. Armfield, the Los Angeles County risk manager. Proportionately, Arpaio's lawsuits have cost more, given that L.A. County is three times the size of Maricopa County.

In December, Maricopa County Risk Manager Peter Crowley produced records that showed the total cost of Arpaio's jail lawsuits to be $41 million. Since then, two more jail suits have settled for an additional $2.2 million. That brings Arpaio's total jail lawsuit bill to $43.2 million in a county of about 3 million residents — compared with less than $100 million in Los Angeles, a county of more than 10 million residents.

Debbie Hill says Hart v. Arpaio doesn't aim for a million-dollar judgment but instead for healthy, humane, and constitutional conditions.

"We are delighted that this case is moving forward and our experts will have an opportunity to inspect the jails," Hill says. "We believe that the sheriff and county are failing to meet constitutional minimums in the critical areas of medical and mental healthcare, environmental health, and safety."