Franklin County officials are considering contracting with an independent company to provide health care for the county’s inmate population.
Art Rose, a program consultant with Advanced Correctional Healthcare, pitched the company’s services before the Franklin County Quorum Court during the county officials’ monthly meeting Thursday in Ozark. Rose attended the meeting at the request of Franklin County Sheriff Anthony Boen and jail administrator Janice King.
The Franklin County jail has a 49-prisoner capacity. As of Tuesday, the lockup housed 18 male inmates and three female inmates.
According to the Franklin County clerk’s office, the jail, which has an annual budget of about $591,450, spent about $45,000 last year on medical, dental and hospital care for inmates.
Franklin County attorney James Mainard said Advanced Correctional Healthcare sent him two proposed contracts, both of which would provide on-site nursing staff and periodic visits from doctors for between $32,000 and $34,000 a year.
Kathy Gallow, Advanced Correctional Healthcare marketing coordinator, said the company, based in Illinois, now provides services to inmates in five county jails in Arkansas.
The White County jail in Searcy has contracted with the company since February 2010. Jail administrator Clayton Edwards said he petitioned county administrators to hire an outside health-care provider for his jail.
“I felt we were large enough that we needed it,” Edwards said. “It may not be economic for all facilities, but for White County, it was the right move. Prior to this contract, we’ve never had a nurse in our facility. It’s kind of like catching up to the 21st century.”
Edwards said the county’s annual contract with Advanced Correctional Healthcare costs about $175,000.
Before entering its current contract with the company, jail administrators responded to about 800 medical requests each month from inmates in the 330-bed facility, Edwards said.
“We were having to take every inmate with an issue to an outside medical source. Our liability was extremely high - we were just a taxi to various medical services.”
Under the jail’s contractwith the company, a full-time nurse is at the lockup five days a week, and most inmates’ medical requests are dealt with on-site. Edwards said if inmates require further medical treatment, officers escort the prisoners to the appropriate facility, but that happens less often than in years past.
The contract costs are not necessarily feasible for counties of all sizes. Archie Rousey, administrator for the Carroll County jail, said it is unlikely that his 100-prisoner lockup will contract with an outside company to provide health care.
“It’s probably favorable to a larger operation,” Rousey said. “But we have a clinic and a hospital across the street. We have a nurse on staff, and we can pretty much take care of things on our own.”
Rousey said jail officials work to screen inmates for major medical problems before the prisoners get put in cells. If an individual has an immediate medical need such as a broken bone, he must be treated at a hospital before being taken to the jail. If the inmate suffers from an advanced disease that requires regular treatment, Rousey said he typically asks the judge who tried the case to send the individual to another jail.
The Carroll County jail in Berryville is at about 50 percent of its 100-prisoner capacity, Rousey said.
A part of what Advanced Correctional Healthcare and similar private health-care providers offer is a liability buffer against lawsuits from inmates and former inmates. Civil suits against jailers often cite the U.S. Constitution and are typically based on claims that jailers showed indifference to a prisoner’s medical needs.
Jessica Young, an attorney with Advanced Correctional Healthcare, said most of the company’s contracts include language that “holds harmless” and indemnifies the client facility in the event of a lawsuit over medical treatment.
Young declined to discuss whether the company, which has contracts with 24 jails in 17 states throughout the Midwest, has ever been successfully sued or has reached an out-of-court settlement with any inmate under its medical care.
Franklin County Quorum Court members have not set a date to vote on the proposed contract but have asked that it be placed on the March meeting agenda for further discussion.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11 on 02/27/2013