See our home page for frequently updated information on:

David Arner v. Charles Ryan (our litigation which challenges the legality/constitutionality of the 1% fee deducted from deposits to inmate spendable accounts, which became effective on July 20, 2011.)  You can download a copy of this Complaint from our home page and mail it to your loved one/friend in prison!

James J. Hamm and Donna Leone Hamm v. Charles Ryan ( our litigation which challenges the legality/constitutionality of the $25 background check fee that is imposed on all adult visitor applicants, effective for those who apply beginning July 20, 2011.)  You can download a copy of this Complaint, the Motion for Summary Judgment and the Statement of Facts from our home page and mail it to your loved one/friend in prison!

All of the imposed fees against prisoners and visitor applicants is placed in a newly-formed Building Renewal Fund that is operated by the ADOC to repair roofs and plumbing, etc.  None of the fees are actually used to defray the cost of inmate banking or of visitor background checks.  That's why these are not "fees" at all.  They are unconstitutional "special taxes" imposed on a select group of people with no specialized benefit or gain to the group who pay the fees.

Parsons et al v. Charles Ryan:  This lawsuit was filed by the ACLU and other groups to challenge the poor medical care and abuse of solitary confinement in the Arizona DOC.  The Plaintiffs listed Middle Ground as a "resource" in their discovery documents.  As a result, the lawyers representing DOC served a subpoena on us for all documents (letters, emails, etc.) having to do with medical issues or solitary confinement.  Considering we formed Middle Ground in 1983, this would have been a monumental amount of documents.  We objected and refused to comply.  Finally, Defendants filed a Motion to Compel (against us).  We responded with a formal objection and asked the court to grant a protective order to protect us from harassment by DOC's high-powered lawyers.  On November 20, 2012, the Federal District Court in Phoenix (Hon. Neil Wake) DENIED the Motion to Compel and GRANTED our request for a Protective Order.  In addition, the court ordered DOC's lawyers to produce reasons in 14 days why they should not be held in contempt of court for harassing Middle Ground.  If you wish to examine these documents, they are: CLICK HERE  and CLICK HERE.. (You can print off these documents and send them to someone in prison.)