County fears liability if nurses don’t handle task at work-release center
By STEVE SCHULTZE, Staff
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
MILWAUKEE, Wisc. — Guards at the Milwaukee County work-release center would no longer monitor prescription drugs taken by inmates under a proposal by Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr., who says he’ll offer to have jail nurses do the job.
Using staff without any medical training to distribute medication poses major liability concerns and should cease, according to Clarke and some county supervisors.
The sheriff and supervisors say they learned only Thursday that correctional officers handled the task at the Community Correctional Center, though that practice has gone on for many years.
While it’s permissible under state rules, the county is flirting with a disastrous lawsuit in case the wrong drug or dose is given, said Supervisor Lynne De Bruin.
“That’s how the bureaucracy kills people, by having the wrong people overseeing the wrong service,” said De Bruin, a nurse by training. Inmates at the county jail and House of Correction already have nurses oversee drug distribution.
The issue came up when Supervisor Patricia Jursik said during a meeting of a County Board committee Thursday that she had seen the practice during a recent tour of the work-release center, housed in a dilapidated converted hospital at 1004 N. 10th St.
“I was amazed,” Jursik said, and concerned about the county’s liability.
De Bruin said she was flabbergasted and had never before heard of the practice in her 16 years on the board. She called for an immediate order ending it.
Clarke said later Thursday that he would provide jail nurses to oversee drugs given to the work-release inmates, even though the center is not his responsibility. That may mean paying some jail nurses overtime this year to accomplish the extra work, he said.
He’ll likely make a formal proposal to the County Board next week, Clarke said.
His offer comes as County Executive Scott Walker is considering shifting the entire work-release operation to the jail and Clarke’s control for 2009. The center now is overseen by Walker and House of Correction Superintendent Ron Malone.
The state Corrections Department does not forbid having correctional officers dispense medication, and Milwaukee County isn’t the only place that does it. Waukesha County uses both nurses and correctional officers to distribute medication, said Waukesha County Sheriff’s Capt. Brian Healy. Correctional officers go through specialized training before they oversee drug distribution, Healy said.
Racine County uses deputies and jailers to dispense medication to work-release and other inmates, under the supervision of medical staff, said Lt. Doug Wearing.
Financial necessity
Jeffrey Mayer, an assistant superintendent for Milwaukee County’s work-release center and the House of Correction, agreed it would be preferable to have nurses handle inmate medications.
Mayer said under the current system, correctional officers don’t actually dispense the drugs. Officers keep inmate prescriptions in a secure locker, fetch the prescription containers as needed for inmates and watch them take a dose, Mayer said. The officers make sure the correct drugs are going to the appropriate inmate by checking a jail photo ID card and matching the name on a prescription bottle, Mayer said.
The officers also count all inmate pills daily and log the numbers, he said.
A federal report by the National Institute of Corrections issued in January described the arrangement as “an accident waiting to happen.” The report said the work-release center had no standard protocol for how inmate medication is distributed.
“Different staff members have different procedures,” the report said.
“The officers have no training to know what various types of pills look like or what are appropriate dosages,” the federal report said. That could lead to fatal mistakes, it said. The report also warned that inmates could “rather easily” manipulate the system to get drugs for illicit purposes or suicide attempts.
Mayer said he knew of no confirmed case in which an officer gave the wrong prescription to an inmate.
Kevin Schoofs, a correctional officer at the work-release center and president of the officers union, said the drug distribution task was a major distraction and a security risk, because only one officer is assigned to each floor of the work-release center. Each floor has about 60 inmates, who spend days in the community at jobs or training programs and nights confined to the center.
A variety of powerful drugs can be found at the center, he said. For example, two inmates there now are on methadone, a heroin substitute, Schoofs said.
Copyright 2008, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. (Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media.)
Copyright 2008 Journal Sentinel Inc.