When a loved one is incarcerated at a privately operated facility like La Palma Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona, understanding how medical care is delivered — and how to advocate when it falls short — is one of the most important things a family can do. La Palma's record on healthcare has drawn federal scrutiny, and that history gives families both a cautionary context and practical tools for advocacy.
The Federal Finding: 3.35 Days Average Response Time
The 2021 inspection by the DHS Office of Inspector General found that La Palma's medical unit took an average of 3.35 days to respond to sick-call requests during the period the facility held ICE immigration detainees. In a correctional setting, a sick call is typically the only way an incarcerated person can access non-emergency medical attention — they cannot simply call a doctor's office or visit an urgent care clinic. A 3.35-day average response time means that on many occasions, people waited significantly longer than that before receiving evaluation.
Investigators also found that some prescription medications were not being refilled promptly, leaving people without treatments they had already been prescribed and evaluated for. For chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, or mental health disorders, interruptions in medication can have serious health consequences.
How Medical Care Works in a Private Prison
At facilities like La Palma, medical care is typically provided by a vendor — often a healthcare company that contracts separately with CoreCivic or directly with the state. In Arizona DOC facilities, the primary healthcare contractor has changed multiple times over the years, with the state and CoreCivic each bearing responsibility for ensuring vendor performance. The key insight for families is that there are multiple layers in the chain: the incarcerated person, CoreCivic staff, the healthcare vendor, and ADCRR oversight. When something goes wrong, identifying which layer failed is important for knowing who to escalate to.
The Sick-Call Process
In most correctional facilities, the process for accessing medical care begins with a written sick-call request. The incarcerated person submits a form describing their symptoms. A nurse reviews requests and triages them for urgency. Non-urgent requests are scheduled for a future nurse or physician visit. Urgent or emergency presentations are handled more immediately, typically through the emergency protocol rather than the sick-call queue.
At La Palma under the ICE contract, investigators found this triage process was failing — the 3.35-day average suggested that either the volume of requests was overwhelming staff capacity, requests were being improperly triaged, or the medical staffing levels were insufficient. The OIG recommended corrections to the sick-call process, though ICE only agreed to three of eight recommendations.
What Families Can Do
There are several practical steps families can take to support a loved one's healthcare at La Palma:
Document Everything
Keep a log of every conversation you have with your loved one about their health. Note the date, what they reported, what medical requests they said they had submitted, and the responses they received. This documentation is invaluable if you need to escalate a concern or if a complaint is later disputed.
Know How to File a Healthcare Grievance
Arizona DOC has a formal grievance process for incarcerated people. Concerns about medical care can be grieved through the facility's internal process first, with appeals available to ADCRR headquarters. Critically, under Arizona DOC rules, an incarcerated person generally must exhaust internal grievance processes before filing a formal complaint with outside agencies — so encouraging your loved one to file grievances in writing, and keeping copies, is important.
Contact the Facility Healthcare Coordinator
Most facilities have a healthcare services coordinator or health administrator who is separate from security staff. If your loved one is experiencing a chronic condition or recurring problem, you can request (in writing) a meeting or a call with this coordinator. Not all facilities accommodate these requests, but making them formally creates a paper trail.
Emergency Medical Situations
If you believe your loved one is in a medical emergency and is not receiving treatment, you can contact the facility directly, contact ADCRR's 24-hour inmate monitoring line if one is published, or in extreme cases contact your state legislator's office, which often has a constituent services function that can open inquiries with ADCRR.
The Broader Context: Private Prison Healthcare
La Palma's documented healthcare challenges are not unique to this facility. Research on private prison healthcare has consistently found that cost pressures in the private model create incentives to minimize medical staffing and respond slowly to non-emergency requests. A 2019 study in the American Journal of Public Health found that private prisons had higher rates of failure to provide adequate medical care than comparable public facilities. This is not a universal condemnation of private prisons, but it does mean that in a private facility, families may need to be more proactive in monitoring their loved one's healthcare access.
ADCRR's Role in Oversight
Arizona DOC conducts monitoring audits of CoreCivic-operated facilities as part of its contract compliance requirements. These audits typically include review of medical unit performance, staffing ratios, and response times. ADCRR publishes annual reports on its contracted facilities; accessing these reports can give families a sense of whether the documented problems from the ICE-era OIG investigation have been addressed under the current Arizona DOC contract. To find these reports, visit ADCRR's official website or make a public records request for contract monitoring documentation.
Mental Health Care
Mental health services in correctional settings are often even more limited than physical health services. At La Palma, CoreCivic's mental health staff handle assessments, crisis intervention, and ongoing treatment for incarcerated individuals with mental health needs. Arizona DOC sets minimum standards for mental health staffing ratios and service delivery frequency. If your loved one has a mental health diagnosis and is not receiving prescribed psychiatric medications or therapy sessions, this is a grievable issue under ADCRR policy. Documenting the diagnosis, the prescribed treatment, and the gap between what is prescribed and what is being provided is the foundation for any effective advocacy.