Media Contact

ACLU of Arizona, media@acluaz.org
Alexandra Ringe, ACLU National, aringe@aclu.org, (212) 549-2582

February 13, 2017

***Media Advisory: Teleconference Tomorrow & Hearing Wednesday***

ACLU Attorney, Mothers of Victims of the Maricopa County Jail System to Address Journalists Tuesday

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PHOENIX – In anticipation of a federal court hearing Wednesday about former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s deadly jail legacy, the ACLU invites journalists to participate in a teleconference tomorrow, Tuesday, February 13, 2017, at 10:30 a.m. MST with ACLU Senior Staff Attorney Eric Balaban and the mothers of two young men who were victims of Maricopa County’s inadequate services for jailed, mentally ill people.

Balaban will discuss the latest developments in the lawsuit Graves v. Arpaio and the ACLU’s attempts to attain hospital-level care for Maricopa County’s seriously mentally ill detainees.

Shari Ferreira and Ruth Ann Nickell, whose sons did not receive adequate mental health treatment while detained together at the Fourth Avenue Jail in Phoenix, will share their impressions of Maricopa County’s failings related to the treatment of mentally ill, jailed people. Nickell’s son, Ryan Bates, is accused of killing Ferreira’s son, Zachary Daughtry, while the two young men were held, without proper mental health care, in the same cell.

WHAT: Teleconference for journalists about Maricopa County Jail conditions and the ACLU lawsuit Graves v. Arpaio. 

WHO:

  • Eric Balaban, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU National Prison Project
  • Shari Ferreira, mother of Zachary Daughtry, who was killed while held at Maricopa County’s Fourth Avenue Jail.
  • Ruth Ann Nickell, mother of Ryan Bates, who is accused of killing Zachary Daughtry, his cellmate at Fourth Avenue Jail.

WHEN: 10:30 a.m. MST, Tuesday, February 14, 2017

A court hearing in Graves v. Arpaio will take place Wednesday, February 15, 2017, at 1:30 p.m. in Judge Neil Wake’s courtroom at the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse in Phoenix.

Additional information is available in these court filings:

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