PHOENIX (CN) - A federal judge on Thursday denied the Arizona Department of Correction's motion for summary judgment in a class action accusing it of providing inadequate medical and mental health care and abusively using solitary confinement in the state's 10 prisons, which hold 33,000 prisoners.
Lead plaintiff Victor Antonio Parsons filed the complaint in 2012 against lead defendant Charles L. Ryan, the director of Arizona prisons. A federal judge in Phoenix certified it as a class action in March 2013, and the 9th Circuit affirmed the certification.
U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake denied the state's request for summary judgment on Thursday.
Trial is expected to begin in October.
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