| NEWS | The Inmates Are Litigious Hickman’s Family Farms’ reliance on prison labor is beginning to yield lots of lawsuits. BY JOSH KELETY H ickman’s Family Farms, which claims to be one of the largest egg producers in the Southwest, was recently hit with several new lawsuits filed by prison inmates who claim that they were severely injured while working for the company. In all, there are nine. Filed between late 2019 and 2020 in Maricopa County Supe- rior Court by Arizona Department of Cor- rections inmates, they accuse the company of negligence after inmates were allegedly hurt on the job at the company’s egg farms in western Maricopa County. Hickman’s Family Farms, which is co- owned by Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman, has long relied on cheap inmate labor. For over 20 years, the com- pany has used Arizona Department of Cor- rections inmates as workers — and paid them sub-minimum wages — through an agreement with Arizona Correctional In- dustries, which is a subdivision of the De- partment of Corrections that handles inmate labor contracts. The lawsuits contain a variety of allega- tions, ranging from hands getting maimed in machinery to falls and car accidents. Nathan Peshlakai, who filed a lawsuit on November 19, 2019, alleged in his com- plaint that he suffers from “permanent dis- figurement” and a “lack of function in his hand and fingers” after his right hand was caught between a sprocket and a chain while he was adjusting a manure belt. The company eventually settled with Peshlakai in early 2021, online court records state. Another plaintiff, Noah Moore, also sus- tained hand injuries while working on a manure belt, according to a lawsuit filed on November 4, 2020. Moore allegedly “suf- fered mangling and extensive fractures to his right hand” after the incident and had to undergo extensive surgery at the hospital. Some of the other lawsuits involve on- site car collisions. For instance, Amanda Engler, who filed on October 26, 2020, al- The barns at Hickman’s Family Farms in Tonopah. leges she suffered a compound fracture in her leg and a fractured knee after a van she was riding in, which was being driven by a Hickman’s Family Farms employee, rolled through a stop sign and was struck by a semi-truck whose driver was also a farm employee. Engler alleges the accident was due to the driver texting while driving. A different inmate, Robert McLaughlin, filed a lawsuit on May 7, 2020, after he fell and fractured his leg while dodging a “mortality cart” that was rolling out of a semi-trailer. (Phoenix New Times spoke with McLaughlin in-depth about his injury back in 2019.) According to the lawsuit, McLaughlin remained in the hospital for over a week after the incident, after which he was transported to the infirmary unit at the Arizona state prison in Florence. His leg did not “heal straight” and he continues to suffer from, among other things, pain, numbness, and a “lack of dexterity and co- ordination.” McLaughlin is suing both Hickman’s Family Farms and the state of Arizona over the incident. He accuses the state of failing to provide proper medical care and the company of negligence by not training its workers, asking him to do a “three to four person task” alone, and failing to Elizabeth Whitman >> p 23 18 JUNE 24TH – JUNE 30TH, 2021 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
