A court hearing is scheduled Wednesday to determine whether Arizona should face fines for falling short in its promise to improve health care in state prisons.
The state agreed to make the improvements in 2014 when it settled a lawsuit over the quality of prison health care.
Magistrate David Duncan called the hearing after repeatedly voicing frustration over what he described as the state's "abject failure" to carry out the improvements.
Duncan has threatened to hold Corrections Director Charles Ryan in civil contempt of court and fine the state $1,000 for each instance of noncompliance in December and January.
The state could be fined as much as $1.4 million after acknowledging it had nearly 1,400 instance of noncompliance in those months.
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