On March 7, 1994, the Mexican Consul, Nicolas Escalante, wrote the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona (Janet Napolitano), complaining of poor conditions in the Gila County jail in Globe Arizona. He had been to the jail at the request of a number of Mexican citizen inmates. The U.S. Attorney's Office referred the matter to the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, which opened an investigation into two jails in Gila County, one in Globe and the other in Payson Arizona. Pursuant to the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 1997 et seq., the matter was opened by a notice letter dated Aug. 3, 1994, and after investigation, the Department of Justice issued findings on January 7, 1998. The findings letter noted that conditions in the Payson jail had been remedied to a sufficient extent that they were not unconstitutional. The Globe jail, by contrast, continued to have very significant problems, described in the letter.

On December 22, 1998, the U.S. Department of Justice filed this CRIPA lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona regarding the conditions of confinement in the Globe jail. Judge Paul G. Rosenblatt was assigned to hear this case. On December 22, 1998, the parties reached a settlement agreement and filed joint motions to dismiss the case. Specifically, the agreement covered changes in inmate classification, security, safety and supervision, staff training, inmate exercise, sanitation, environment, fire safety, and health care.

On January 5, 1999, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona (Judge Paul G. Rosenblatt) granted the dismissal, conditioned upon the compliance with the terms of the settlement agreement. On November 28, 2003, the parties agreed that the defendants had substantially complied with the terms of the settlement agreement, and they filed a joint motion to unconditionally dismiss the case. On December 2, 2003, the court granted the motion to dismiss unconditionally.

Kristen Sagar - 10/02/2006


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