by David M. Reutter

A recently-formed Florida prison healthcare corporation is blossoming with new contracts from county sheriffs who decided to change bidding requirements and in one case eliminate cost as a consideration.

The company, Coconut Creek-based Armor Correctional Health Services, is owned by Miami physician Dr. Jose Armas. In 2004 Armor had no track record, no active contracts and no sales. It now has over $210 million worth of contracts over a five-year period, including medical care for prisoners in Broward, Brevard and Hillsborough counties. Other contracts to treat prisoners in Martin and Lancaster counties are pending.

To obtain the contracts, some behind-the-scenes action occurred. In October 2004, Broward County Sheriff Ken Jenne awarded Armor its first contract, worth $127 million, to provide services for the county's 5,000 prisoners. During the bidding process Jenne dropped a requirement that companies must have experience providing healthcare to prisoners. While no explanation was provided for that action, it was known that Armas, through his companies and associates, had been a major contributor to Jennes reelection campaign.

Upon obtaining the Broward contract after only three months in business, in May 2005 Armor sought and was awarded a five-year, $19.9 million contract to provide ...

Five California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) employees, testifying under subpoena at a February 27, 2006 State Senate Government Oversight Committee hearing, revealed the use-it-or-lose-it practice of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars allotted to prisoner drug treatment programs on such items as guitars, pianos, a portable stage, plasma TVs, lavish furniture and even cars. This suspect result, which the employees were ordered to suppress, resulted from the intersection of two policies: drug treatment contractors under spending their budgets to increase profits, and zero-based budgeting, a state policy that automatically reduces a departments subsequent fiscal year funding allotment by the amount left over from the previous fiscal year.

The Senate hearings focused on why CDCR overspent its $6 billion budget by over $500 million in each of the past two years. CDCR has 34 contracts for helping prisoners beat addictions; fully 65% of California prisoners have a substance-abuse problem. State Senator Jackie Speier was incensed to learn that drug-rehab money, an investment by the Legislature to reduce recidivism and hence prison costs, was instead having the opposite effect, engendering preposterous expenses of money.

A San Francisco Chronicle investigation revealed much abuse. One program at Pleasant Valley State Prison (PVSP) ...

EMSA Negligent In Florida Jail Prisoners Death, County Pays $65,000

by Michael Rigby

On April 1, 2005, a jury in the 19th Circuit Court of St. Lucie County, Florida, found EMSA Correctional Care negligent but not liable for damages in a prisoners allegedly drug-related death. EMSAs co-defendant, St. Lucie County, ...

In November 2005, Dekalb County, Georgia, a private medical provider, and a local hospital agreed to pay a combined total of $790,000 to settle with the widow of a prisoner who died from a perforated ulcer.

While imprisoned in the Dekalb County Jail, the decedent, 64, was taken to Grady ...

On May 11, 2005, a jury in Portsmouth City, Virginia, awarded $769,000 to the family of an asthmatic prisoner who died in the city jail due to inadequate medical care.

While serving a five day sentence in the Portsmouth jail for driving with a suspended license, Mark Anthony Benthall, 23, ...

by David M. Reutter

After being in business for twenty-three years, one would think that Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) would have refined the art of running prisons and jails. Yet an examination of CCA's three jails in Florida reveals a pattern of gross mismanagement and substandard or indifferent care of prisoners on every level, which has resulted in injuries and deaths. Risks to the community abound in frequent escapes. Repeated suicides, beatings, rapes and misconduct by CCA employees have occurred.

CCA is the United States' largest operator or privatized prisons and jails. The Nashville-based company was founded in 1983 by Doctor Crants and Thomas Beasley, former chair of the Tennessee Republican party. CCA runs three state prisons and three county jails in Florida. The jails, which are the focus of this article, are located in Bay, Citrus and Hernando Counties. These counties sought privatization of their jails after buying into CCA's sales pitch that it could save taxpayers money.

Critics, however, claim that the savings come from hiring unqualified, untrained personnel at low wages, and by scrimping on services and security measures that the contracts require and prisoners have a constitutional right to receive. As the old adage says, ...

The former owners of U.S. Correctional Corporation (USCC) have agreed to settle a lawsuit over misuse of the employee stock-ownership plan for $13.2 million.

Prior to 1998, when it was purchased by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) for $225 million, USCC ran four private prisons in Kentucky: Marion County Adjustment ...

The California State Auditor reported in September 2005 that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), when contracting with private prison contractors for two minimum security Community Correctional Facilities (CCF), issued no-bid awards to companies who had hired recently retired senior CDCR and Finance employees with economic interests in the awards.

Specifically, the Auditor found that (1) actions taken by two of CDCRs former employees may have violated conflict-of-interest laws, (2) CDCR does not ensure that retired annuitants [former employees on retirement pay who are rehired on a second salary] file statements of economic interest, (3) state funds were committed and spent before approval was obtained for a no-bid contract and (4) justification for the no-bid contracts was based on a misleading claim of cost comparisons that did not include all comparable costs. The Auditor further criticized CDCRs future prison population projections [and hence the need for such private facilities] because no documentation of the projection process existed, denying the Auditor ability to establish the validity of the projections.

In addition to 34 state prisons, CDCR operates 12 minimum security CCFs, six of which are operated by private contractors and the other six by local governments. All CCF contracts ...

South Carolina Jury Awards $28.5 Million For Diabetic Jail Prisoners Death

A South Carolina jury has awarded $28.5 million to the family of a mentally ill diabetic man who died from insulin deficiency while imprisoned at the Sumter County Detention Center. The verdict against Eastern Health Care Group, the jails ...

OBriens Pharmacy in Ballston Springs has a pretty good deal in supplying the Saratoga County Jail in New York with prescription drugs for prisoners. The county, which paid OBriens $247,000 in FY 2004, has been paying the average wholesale price plus a $2.60-per-prescription filing fee in accordance with a 1992 policy. By contrast, the countys nursing home and nearby Warren County Jail put their prescription drug purchasing out on bids. Warren County pays 8% below average wholesale and has no filing fee.

How did OBriens get such a sweetheart deal? It could be because OBriens contributes to Saratoga County Sheriff James D. Bowens re-election campaign. In 2005, the amount contribute by OBriens was $1,100.

Jack Murray, Saratoga County auditor, said his staff checks the bills submitted by OBrien, stating that they rarely find an overcharge and sometimes find undercharges. However, they are checking against a policy that may allow overcharging in general.

Bowen said OBriens is used because it is close to the jail and able to make quick deliveries. However, he said he would look into the possibility of putting the prescription drug purchases out on bid.

If there is a way to save money, Ill have to talk ...