The director of Arizona's prisons system has corrected his testimony from a hearing over whether he should be found in contempt of court in a lawsuit challenging the quality of health care for inmates.
Corrections Director Charles Ryan testified Tuesday that $2.5 million in incentives paid by the state to its contractor for inmate care over a four-month period came from savings from having hundreds of unfilled jobs within the Department of Corrections.
The following day, Ryan said in a court filing that the incentive payments instead came from money that had been set aside for health care for inmates in Arizona's prisons.
U.S. Magistrate Judge David Duncan has threatened to find Ryan in civil contempt for failing to adequately improve care for prisoners.
