Recent Articles From The Weekly Update

Nearly $1 million of human services levy funding for behavioral health services at the Montgomery County Jail is on hold after a Montgomery County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) board member voiced concerns about the level of care NaphCare provides. There have been concerns from the community over jail deaths.

The San Diego sheriff’s current provider, NaphCare, has been repeatedly cited for violating terms of its contract. NaphCare failed to pay outside health providers, leaving the Sheriff’s Department unable to transport patients to those unpaid facilities. The Alabama-based correctional healthcare giant also kept staffing dangerously low, relied on unlicensed workers, failed to file required reports and repair or replace badly needed equipment. The Sheriff’s Department has found another firm to provide healthcare services, Correctional Healthcare Partners. Correctional Healthcare Partners has been serving as a subcontractor, providing medical staffing to NaphCare. But under the new agreement, Correctional Healthcare Partners would report directly to the Sheriff’s Department.

Naphcare, the prime contractor delivering health care services in San Diego County jails failed to pay outside hospitals and other specialty providers, limiting the Sheriff’s Department’s ability to send sick and needy people in custody into treatment. The Alabama correctional medical giant brought in to manage treatment in the troubled county jail system, also relied on unlicensed staff, ignored requests to repair or replace equipment and failed to fill hundreds of shifts, according to the documents. Earlier this month, for example, a federal judge in Arizona presiding over a case seeking to improve conditions for the nearly 25,000 people in state prison said the medical and mental health NaphCare provides was "fundamentally lacking."

The Fulton County Jail and its medical staff are facing a lawsuit after an Atlanta teen with a history of mental health issues died while in custody. Shane Kendall, 18, who had been charged as an adult for the murder of his adoptive mother at the age of 15, was found unresponsive in his cell on Feb. 1, 2021. Court documents highlight that a medical provider from Naphcare, the for-profit company contracted to provide medical care in the Fulton County Jail, refused to perform CPR on Kendall due to having a "bad knee."

Montgomery County commissioners in December approved a $7.6 million contract for 2024 correctional healthcare with provider NaphCare, which oversaw care at the jail amid a sharp uptick in inmate deaths. This decision came after the jail reported multiple inmate deaths. Since the beginning of 2023, a total of eight inmates have died after being booked into the facility.

A lawsuit filed against NaphCare — as well as against Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos and individual jail guards — by the family of 18-year old Sylvestre Inzunza who died of a fentanyl overdose in the jail in February of 2022 claims that NaphCare is responsible for “systemic failures” in providing medical care and was “grossly negligent.” Complaints of delayed care continue today, according to multiple sources currently detained in the jail.

NaphCare will remain the health care provider for Fulton County jail inmates for at least another year. Its service drew criticism in the fallout from the Sept. 13, 2022, death of Lashawn Thompson in the Rice Street jail’s mental health unit. A county medical examiner’s report said the 35-year-old’s cause of death was undetermined, but an independent autopsy said he died of neglect. Thompson’s family said he had been visibly deteriorating for some time but was ignored, and died covered in lice and bedbugs.