By C1 Staff
MIAMI — Documents recently released show that reports on inmate deaths weren’t regularly turned over to the state by private companies handling prison health care, as required.
The Palm Beach Post reports that a sampling of inmate files at 19 prisons wrote that death information in 33 instances, including autopsies, either weren’t provided for state review, only partly provided or provided late.
State contract monitors and an oversight panel outlined several potential failings by two companies handling almost all inmate health care: Corizon Inc. and Wexford Health Sources.
Monitors cited 14 lapses at Lake and Union prisons, where Corizon handled medical care.
Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman Greg Evers said he wanted the Department of Corrections to rebid a combined $1.3 billion in contracts held by those two companies.
Corizon has received the most criticism: suspected cancers were slow to be diagnosed or treated; medications were mislabeled; documentation of nurses or doctors seeing inmates was faked; and psychiatric drugs were handed out “like candy.”
The new DOC Secretary, Julie Jones, met with both Wexford and Corizon to lay out expectations.
Last month, the DOC issued $22,500 in contract violation penalties against Corizon and $2,500 against Wexford.
Governor Rick Scott’s new budget calls for an additional $7.9 million to offset rising inmate medical costs, and the money is mainly earmarked for Corizon and Wexford.