Judge David Duncan said continued failures show the prison health care system, operated by the state’s contractor Corizon Health, is stretched too thin.

Magistrate Judge David Duncan called the motion a “meritless distraction.”

New federal court filings in the Parsons v. Ryan prison health care settlement contain emails from a former Corizon employee who claims to have resigned over health care and safety issues in Arizona prisons. Emails show the former employee had been raising alarm bells for months.

Arizona Department of Corrections leadership testified in federal court that Corizon Health is responsible for poor health care conditions in Arizona prisons.

A special hearing investigating the state’s private correctional health care provider continued in federal court Wednesday in Phoenix.

Throughout six hours of testimony, Dr. Jan Watson detailed a pattern of failure in the Arizona prison health care system.

The latest court filings in an ongoing federal court case show Arizona could now be facing more than a million dollars in fines — just for the month of December.

The bill would allocate $80,000 annually to the Arizona Department of Corrections from the state general fund so that all women in state prisons have access to free, unlimited, feminine hygiene products.

Plaintiff’s attorneys in a prison health care settlement have filed a series of letters in federal court that were originally sent to Arizona officials in an attempt to secure medical attention for a physically disabled inmate.