- Local
- Community
- Journalism
Support the independent voice of Phoenix and help keep the future of New Times free.
U.S. District Judge Neil Wake ordered Maricopa County to pay more than $1.3 million in legal fees after losing a lawsuit over bad jail conditions, says a paragraph in the Arizona Republic yesterday.
The amount is what lawyers in the project sought following a legal fight that had dragged on for three decades, (though the amount was based on the legal bill of the last four years). In October, Judge Wake found the county jail and correction health services were unconstitutional due to their filthy, dangerous conditions.
Oddly, the Republic doesn't have the story up on its Web site. And considering the amount of the county's payment, the newspaper sort of underplayed the two-sentence article by reporter J.J. Hensley, tucking it in a bottom corner of the front page of its "B" section.
While just an epilogue, this ruling hammers home the point that the county should have spending its time and money cleaning up the jail system rather than fighting to keep overflowing toilets and to deny proper medications to inmates.
Keep Phoenix New Times Free... Since we started Phoenix New Times, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Phoenix, and we would like to keep it that way. Offering our readers free access to incisive coverage of local news, food and culture. Producing stories on everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with gutsy reporting, stylish writing, and staffers who've won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi feature-writing award to the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. But with local journalism's existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" membership program, allowing us to keep covering Phoenix with no paywalls.