Health Affairs Looks At Youth & SUD; HARP Issue Paper On Section 5121 And Substance Use Treatment Options; Maryland Delays 1115

Highlighted Stories

Editor's Note

In our last Editor’s Note, we discussed Section 5121 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) of 2023 and how it might apply to the case of a juvenile involved in the criminal justice system. Turning to this week’s first highlighted article from Health Affairs, the study examines substance use disorder (SUD) among juveniles. As the article’s title emphasizes, many youth do not receive treatment. It also notes that treatment pathways for juveniles differ from those for adults, since the involvement of a guardian is often crucial in initiating care. Importantly, the study’s data did not come from the criminal justice system.

Our second highlight—a HARP issue paper—focuses on justice-involved youth with SUD and notes that Section 5121 can create a treatment pathway for detained youth, who may face even greater barriers to care than those in the Health Affairs study. The paper points out that, among other benefits, Section 5121 can provide access to talk therapies, inpatient adolescent substance use treatment, services ordered by drug courts, and specific forms of medication-assisted treatment (MAT).

As we noted in the last Weekly Update, it remains to be seen how Section 5121 services will be applied in practice. As our subscribers know, COCHS has long emphasized Medicaid’s potential to address the health challenges and negative outcomes so prevalent in carceral settings. For the adult population, however, we are beginning to see difficulties with the approved 1115 waivers intended for reentry. In Oregon, the state’s waiver is apparently not being implemented, and in Maryland, as noted in the last highlighted article, implementation has been delayed. With these uncertainties surrounding the viability of 1115 waivers, it remains to be seen whether Section 5121, as a statutory requirement, might prove to be the pathway through which Medicaid provides the greatest benefit, albeit to a subset of people involve in the criminal justice system.

Youth & SUD

Between 2018 and 2023, rates of opioid-related deaths in US adolescents ages 12–17 increased approximately 280 percent, while increasing 65 percent in adults. These increases in adolescent deaths have called attention to the importance of access to opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment for youth. OUD treatment needs are often different in adolescents than adults. For instance, treatment decisions for adolescents generally involve parents, guardians, or caregivers. Furthermore, adolescents may engage with different treatment referral sources than adults (for example, schools versus employers, pediatricians versus adult medicine physicians) and connect with legal or social (for example, criminal or child welfare) systems under potentially different circumstances and consequences than adults. The results of this study indicate that fewer than one in three adolescents with past-year OUD in the general US population reported receiving any type of substance use treatment in the most recently available federal surveys (2022–23), and adolescents’ receipt of MOUD was even more limited.

Nationwide Medicaid reentry policies create an opportunity to address the needs of youth and young adults by strengthening continuity of care as they are returning to communities. Under Section 5121 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) of 2023, states will use Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to cover certain services provided to eligible youth and young adults in correctional facilities. Up to 70% of youth involved in the juvenile justice system may have a diagnosable behavioral health condition, including substance use disorders (SUD). The Medicaid provisions present an opportunity for the youth justice system, in partnership with health systems and providers, to ensure that they are not only screening all youth for health-related needs but also connecting youth to evidence-supported services that can improve health and lives. Substance use services can range from office-based talk therapies like motivational interviewing to inpatient adolescent substance use treatment, services ordered by drug courts, and specific forms of medication-assisted treatment (for individuals 18 and older).

Maryland's 1115 Waiver

Maryland has delayed the implementation of a program that would nearly triple the number of incarcerated individuals with access to life-saving opioid-use disorder medications, holding up care for thousands who are at dangerously high risk of fatally overdosing upon release. The program, made possible by the creation of the federal Medicaid Reentry Section 1115 Demonstration Opportunity in 2023, allows Medicaid to cover access to methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone, also known as medications for opioid use disorder or MOUD, for 90 days pre-release in state prisons and state-run detention facilities in Baltimore. It would also expand post-incarceration case management and provide counseling and prescribed medications up to 30 days post-release. The delay was not announced publicly. It was slated to roll out on July 1 but will now begin sometime this fall, though state officials would not provide a reason for the delay other than “to finalize an approved implementation plan.”

Follow Ups

Oversight

Editor's Comment: As our subscribers know, COCHS is always skeptical of the efficacy of one government bureaucracy—or even a court—attempting to hold accountable those responsible for healthcare in correctional environments. This week we return to stories from Oklahoma County, San Diego, and Texas.

In Oklahoma County, the jail remains seriously understaffed and continues to fail Department of Health inspections. The former CEO of the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority (OCCJA) was quoted as saying the jail needs 500 guards to operate properly. Ironically, this is the same official who once fought Department of Health inspections all the way to the state Supreme Court. To make matters worse, the proposed site for a new behavioral health facility has been found to contain contaminated soil—yet another setback for the county.

In San Diego, oversight has taken an almost imaginary turn. Sheriffs often ignore the recommendations of the Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB). In response, Monica Montgomery Steppe, a county supervisor has proposed strengthening CLERB’s authority. The sheriff, however, countered with a proposal to create a “third-party expert” body modeled after Los Angeles County’s Correctional Health Oversight Unit. The only problem: no such unit actually exists in Los Angeles.

A second San Diego Union-Tribune story, published on September 7, reports that CLERB may soon be granted oversight authority over the jail’s medical providers. The sheriff has warned that NaphCare and Correctional Healthcare Partners might withdraw from their contracts—or demand higher compensation—if subjected to civilian oversight. It is hardly surprising that NaphCare, in particular, would resist such scrutiny. In the April 29, 2025 Editor’s Note, we highlighted a New Yorker article describing a woman who was starved while under NaphCare’s care.

The proposal to expand CLERB’s authority is scheduled for a vote on September 30. If it fails, the fallback option may be the sheriff’s plan for oversight modeled on Los Angeles County’s imaginary unit.

In Tarrant County, Texas, we move from the imaginary to outright stonewalling. Sheriff Waybourn has refused to appear before the county commission after yet another death in his jail. Since Waybourn took office in 2017, there have been 70 deaths at the facility. Meanwhile, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the Texas Commission on Jail Standards appears to be failing to investigate every jail death in the state as required by the Sandra Bland Act. Earlier this year, the Weekly Update carried a story about a woman pleading with the commission to investigate her husband’s death in the Tarrant County jail.

Oklahoma County

The chronically understaffed Oklahoma County Detention Center has even fewer guards than last year, despite efforts to hire and retain more officers with bonuses and wellness programs. There are currently 360 staff members at the jail, including 134 detention officers. That’s 30 fewer detention officers than the jail had in 2024, according to numbers provided by the jail. Oklahoma State Department of Health inspectors have cited the jail for insufficient staffing seven times since 2020, including twice since December. State rules require jails to have enough staff to supervise and keep detainees secure. A staffing analysis had suggested it would take closer to 500 workers to properly run the jail, former jail CEO Brandi Garner reported. Garner resigned in February.

The Oklahoma County Jail's new behavioral health care center is facing additional costs and potential delays due to the discovery of contaminated soil at the construction site. The project, which includes a $700 million jail and a $44 million care center, now requires an additional $481,000 for soil removal. The soil is contaminated with hydrocarbons, commonly found in fossil fuels, which can pose serious health risks, including damage to the lungs, liver, kidneys, and brain, and even cancer.

San Diego

Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe on Monday renewed her call for stronger oversight of San Diego County jails, arguing the current system falls short because it excludes medical and mental health staff. She also pushed back on a memo from Sheriff Kelly Martinez urging the Board of Supervisors to delay a vote on her proposal to expand the authority of the Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB) to investigate jail medical and mental health staff following in-custody deaths. At present, CLERB can only examine whether sworn law enforcement personnel violated policy or engaged in misconduct. Martinez said that while she supports “accountability and an emphasis on improvement and prevention,” allowing CLERB to investigate doctors, nurses, and mental health providers in the county’s seven jails would have “a chilling effect on the jail healthcare system.” She asked supervisors to consider a third-party expert like the Correctional Health Oversight Unit, which she described as an arm of Los Angeles County’s Office of Inspector General and as a “national example of independent, clinically informed correctional oversight.” But that OIG, which monitors the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, has no such unit. When asked about the reference to the nonexistent entity, the San Diego Sheriff’s Office acknowledged the error but did not explain how it happened — or what prompted the sheriff to wholeheartedly endorse a jail oversight model that has no track record.

San Diego County is poised to expand the authority of its Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB) through a proposed ordinance that would, for the first time, give the panel jurisdiction over health care providers in the county’s seven jails. The Board of Supervisors is expected to take up the first reading Tuesday, with a final vote on Sept. 30. If adopted, San Diego would become the first jurisdiction in the U.S. to grant a civilian oversight board investigative powers over correctional medical and mental health staff. The reform would allow CLERB to investigate actions by health providers following in-custody deaths, an area long outside civilian review. CLERB first considered expanding its authority in 2021 at the urging of then-Executive Officer Paul Parker. Currently, the board can only examine whether sheriff’s deputies violated policy in such cases. Sheriff Martinez has objected, saying contractors NaphCare and Correctional Healthcare Partners warned they might end their contracts or demand higher pay if subjected to oversight.NaphCare

Texas

Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn told county commissioners he would not participate in any more briefings about deaths in jail custody called by County Commissioner Alisa Simmons. He let them know through an email, which was read aloud by another county staff member. Simmons is a frequent critic of the jail, and alongside some community members, she has called on Waybourn to resign over his handling of deaths in custody. More than 70 people have died in jail custody since Waybourn took office in 2017, a number that has led to public outcry. Waybourn has defended his jail, arguing there will always be some deaths in custody — there's nothing he can do about someone who gets booked into jail already suffering from a terminal condition. He has also insisted jailers who do wrong face consequences.

The Texas agency, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, responsible for regulating county jails has failed for years to ensure that all inmate deaths are investigated by independent third-party law enforcement agencies, a key provision of the state’s 2017 Sandra Bland Act. Instead, the state’s sheriff’s offices that operate the jails have been able to choose which law enforcement agencies they want appointed to investigate deaths of inmates in their custody. Last fall, state regulators acknowledged that they had only recently discovered that more than two dozen Tarrant County jail deaths since 2021 hadn’t been independently investigated by an outside entity.

New York State

Editor's Comment: Where to begin with New York? Each week feels like opening Pandora’s box—only this box is nested like a Russian doll, with revelation after revelation. This week’s reports note that, because of a wildcat strike earlier this year, a backlog remains of people stuck in county jails waiting to be transferred to prison facilities. Even grimmer is the rising number of suicides among people held in solitary confinement. Although the HALT Solitary Confinement Act was passed in 2022, the Department of Corrections has yet to fully implement it.

Jail Backlog

Now, over five months after the strike’s conclusion, New York’s prison system is trying to prevent its ongoing crisis from trickling down to the local level: Jails have had to hold thousands of people meant to be in prison, leading to difficulties staffing housing areas, running programs, and paying for the influx. At issue is a jam in the jail-to-prison pipeline. Amid February’s chaos, the state prison agency stopped accepting new prisoners. That left local jails, which hold people who haven’t yet been sentenced to prison time, to pick up the slack and hold people technically serving state time. The prison system resumed intakes for all facilities in May, but progress tackling the backlog has been slow.

Halt Act

Twenty-five people died by suicide in New York state prisons in 2024, the highest number since 2000. Nine of these deaths occurred in solitary confinement, where the rate of suicide is seven times higher than the general prison population. According to a report from the HALT Solitary Campaign and Mental Health Alternatives to Solitary Confinement, 60% of the prison suicide and self-harm incidents in 2024 occurred in solitary confinement or other isolated settings. Although solitary confinement was banned in New York by the HALT Solitary Confinement Act of 2022, advocates and experts attribute the high number of deaths to the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision’s (DOCCS) failure to fully implement the law.

ICE

The maximum-security prison known as Angola, notorious for a history of violence and harsh conditions, has long been the repository for Louisiana’s worst offenders. Most inmates arrive with life sentences. Now, the prison, officially the Louisiana State Penitentiary, will also hold immigrants who have been detained as part of the Trump administration’s widening crackdown.

The Trump administration purposely chose a notorious Louisiana prison to hold immigration detainees as a way to encourage people in the US illegally to self-deport, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary, Kristi Noem, said. “This facility will hold the most dangerous of criminals,” Noem said, adding it had “absolutely” been chosen for its reputation. Officials said 51 detainees were already being housed at Angola, with Louisiana’s governor, Jeff Landry, telling reporters that they were being kept separate from the general prison population. Landry said he eventually expected the building to be filled to capacity, expecting more than 400 people to come in ensuing months.

BOP

The Government Accountability Office put the federal prison system on its “high-risk” list in 2023, citing chronic staffing shortages and dangerous working conditions. Overtime is constant, and the risk just gets higher. A recent study in Washington State found that prison employees have PTSD rates similar to combat veterans. According to Caterina Spinaris, founder of Desert Waters Correctional Outreach, correctional officers suffer from PTSD at more than double the rate of military veterans.

Compassionate Release & Bail

This article proposes that compassionate release evaluations be done by an external medical review board rather than actors within the criminal-legal system. This would allow decisions to be made explicitly on medical criteria and in an expedited fashion. Efficient processing of eligible applications is critical because each year, individuals die in prison awaiting a decision. This board would be composed of health care professionals, including those with expertise in palliative care, geriatrics, psychiatry, and general medicine. The board could be housed in a separate agency, such as the Department of Public Health, with funding from the Department of Corrections made available by savings from increased rates of medical parole.

President Trump on Monday signed an executive order aimed at limiting the ability of judges to set bail for defendants, claiming that the measures have hurt public safety. Bail is a guarantee, sometimes in the form of cash, that a defendant posts after arraignment. “Any street, all over the country,” Mr. Trump said. “Cashless bail, we’re ending it.” Mr. Trump, in referring to “cashless bail,” appears to mean policies in which criminal defendants are not required to post bail when they face lesser charges. Studies have shown that such policies have not led to an increase in crime. But conservative lawmakers and media figures have nonetheless used them to portray Democrats as soft on crime.

President Trump called this week for an end to cashless bail and the restoration of the death penalty for any murder case in the nation’s capital. He said he wanted to see a surge in arrests, and for minors to be charged as adults. And he was clear that his motivation was about more than just public safety. “I think crime will be the big subject of the midterms and will be the big subject of the next election,” Trump said on Tuesday. “I think it’s going to be a big, big subject for the midterms and I think the Republicans are going to do really well.”

Studies

The COVID-19 pandemic had drastic impacts on prison operations and perinatal support programs, with cascading influences on the health and wellbeing of pregnant and postpartum people who are incarcerated. A series of recommendations weredeveloped by the research team, among them: Develop infrastructure within facilities to allow perinatal support programming to continue when in-person service delivery is not feasible. In anticipation of times when in-person service delivery is not possible due to facility-wide lockdowns, individual quarantine/isolation, or other external factors, facilities should prioritize and invest in resources to allow programming to continue for pregnant and postpartum clients.

The prevalence of mental health symptoms is substantially higher in incarcerated individuals than in the general public. However, little is known how different types of incarceration, including pre-trial and correctional detention as well as detention exclusively for deportation proceedings (administrative detention), are associated with mental health symptoms. This study to investigate the prevalence of mental health symptoms in this vulnerable population and examine the impact of different types of detention as well as risk factors on their mental health symptoms.

State Roundup

Arizona

Arizona lawmakers grilled prisons Director Ryan Thornell during an Aug. 26 hearing after reports of a rise in violence and inmate homicides. On April 4, three inmates were killed at a prison facility in Tucson in quick succession. Travis Scott, a former warden who ended his career spanning three decades by retiring in May, criticized the agency’s Medication-Assisted Treatment program, which was enacted to help inmates with substance abuse issues overcome their addiction. Scott said that inmates participating were supposed to be monitored for 15 minutes to ensure the medication was properly administered and absorbed, but that this became unfeasible due to the large number of inmates and staffing shortages. This led to inmates being allowed to leave without satisfying the 15-minute waiting period, which allowed inmates to sell their medication.

California

As climate change exacerbates the risks of extreme heat across California, the state’s prison officials plan to embark on a $38 million pilot program to figure out how to keep their prison cells cool. It comes after years of complaints from prisoners about dangerous temperatures during the state’s brutal summer heat waves, warnings by advocates that the problem will only get worse as the planet warms and the death of an incarcerated woman last year during California’s hottest month on record — which officials from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation insist was unrelated to the heat.

A convicted killer in the custody of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation was hit with new charges of attempted murder after he allegedly attacked a prison psychologist with what officials are calling an “improvised weapon.” The attack was interrupted by corrections officers, and the doctor is expected to survive, according to a statement by the CDCR. A correctional officer ended the attack and recovered the makeshift implement used in the attack, officials said. The psychiatrist, who was treated at an outside hospital, was released this weekend.

Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Department of Correction has introduced a new program that might take a little bit of the sting out of a state prison term. In April, the inmates of the minimum-security Pondville Correctional Center in Norfolk were the recipients of 40,000 bees — including two queens — in order to learn beekeeping. The program was spearheaded by Susan Goldwitz, a longtime DOC facility worker who had taken up beekeeping as a personal hobby and realized its potential to provide transferable skills to the inmates, according to a DOC statement.

New Jersey

The state’s independent corrections watchdog is joining the chorus of correctional leaders and policymakers who first called for the west compound of the state prison in Trenton to be demolished and replaced more than a century ago. And in a new inspection report, the corrections ombudsperson again called for the state to establish minimum requirements for the size of cells.That prison is the oldest operating prison in the country. Some of its buildings are almost 190 years old, with some cells that measure as little as 28 square feet, with only room for a bed, a shelf, a toilet and a sink without hot water, and enough floor space to walk in and out. And in the west compound there’s no air conditioning, no day room and no recreation space.

When New Jersey lawmakers passed a law in 2020 meant to free more gravely ill people from prison so they could die at home, they also ordered state corrections officials to reinvest any savings into programs that aid reentry and reduce recidivism. Five years later, officials have yet to do so. Seven seriously ill people have been freed from state prisons since 2021 under the compassionate release law, cutting a combined 1,849 days off their sentences and saving the system, by the Department of Corrections’ own estimate, $71,585. But that money remains in departmental coffers, unspent.

Florida

During a July 23 budget workshop with the Marion County Commission, Sheriff Billy Woods said he expected costs under the Heart of Florida contract to rise by another $400,000 in the 2025–26 budget year. When commissioners asked about the rising costs, Woods said they were related to hospital expenses. He also said Heart of Florida had “low-balled” its bid but argued it was still better than competitors. A nurse who had monitored the jail’s compliance with medical standards before being fired described in a whistleblower complaint violations ranging from falsification of medical records and systematic denial of medical care and access to the grievance system for disabled inmates.

Nearly 20 years after Florida’s family welfare chief was fined and resigned after her agency failed to move mentally ill inmates into treatment centers, the state is once again in court over the same problem, which has worsened since. Florida law has mandated for decades that criminal defendants can be jailed for a maximum of 15 days if found not guilty by reason of insanity or deemed incompetent to stand trial. After that, they must be transferred to a mental hospital. In an ongoing case in Leon County, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) was ordered this month to explain why it shouldn’t be held in contempt for failing to transfer Tara Carty, a 46-year-old defendant declared incompetent to stand trial.

Michigan

Prison is meant to serve as a punishment, not a death sentence executed by black mold, abuse and indifference. Even though the state of Michigan was the first state to abolish the death penalty in 1847, in the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility — the state’s only prison exclusively for women — people still suffer in the shadows. Poor conditions inside WHV, such as health and privacy violations, have led to the gradual deterioration of inmates’ health and, in some cases, death.

A shortage of beds for violent prisoners who should be at high-security correctional facilities recently led to a spike in violence at a lower-security facility where they were sent, union officials say. The St. Louis Correctional Facility, located in mid-Michigan, experienced a surge in violence throughout July, with numerous reports of assaults on prison staff and inmates, according to a report from the Michigan Correction Organization, the union representing the state’s correctional officers.

Minnesota

The Minnesota Department of Corrections has opened a transitional care unit for older inmates at the Oak Park Heights prison. Another has opened in Faribault, as the state tries to adjust to a graying prison population. At Minnesota’s most secure prison, in Oak Park Heights, one wing functions more like a nursing home than a cell block. Men in hospital gowns sleep in adjustable medical beds, and wheelchairs crowd the hallways as nurses make quiet rounds. Minnesotans in prison are growing old — fast. Nearly 1 in 5 people incarcerated in the state is over 50, a figure that’s more than tripled since 1999.

Tennessee

In Monroe County, a grand jury has indicted several members of the sheriff's office's jail staff and two nurses following the in-custody death of 74-year-old preacher Elijah Lester Isbill. The indictment charges were based on an incident that occurred in February, when Isbill, who was said to be suffering from several pre-existing health conditions, was found unresponsive after spending more than nine hours in a restraint chair. The original autopsy had ruled his death accidental; however, an updated report later concluded his death was a homicide, sparked by heart disease compounded by dehydration and the stress of being restrained.

Utah

The impending execution of a man by firing squad in Utah was blocked by the state’s Supreme Court on Friday after his attorneys argued he should be spared because he has dementia. Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, was set to be executed Sept. 5 for abducting and killing Utah mother of three Maurine Hunsaker in 1986. When given a choice decades ago, Menzies selected a firing squad as his method of execution. He would have become only the sixth U.S. prisoner executed by firing squad since 1977. Menzies uses a wheelchair, is dependent on oxygen and can’t understand why he is facing execution.

West Virginia

A cabinet secretary and a superintendent of one of the state’s prisons are being held in civil contempt court for defying a federal order to commit a suicide-prone inmate to one of West Virginia psychiatric hospitals, while a state assistant attorney general could face discipline for allegedly helping state officials ignore the order. In a memorandum opinion and order issued Monday, U.S. District Judge Thomas E. Johnston found Jonathan Frame, the superintendent of Mount Olive Correctional Complex, and state Department of Health Facilities Secretary Michael Caruso, in civil contempt of court, for defying a court order to transfer Keith Lowe, an inmate at Mount Olive, to a state-owned psychiatric hospital

Rikers Island

At Rikers, said five former inmates, they live in hell. In the summer, detainees gasp for air at the gaps under locked doors. Only about half the units have air conditioning. Eleven years ago, Jerome Murdough, a homeless veteran, died in his cell during a 37 degree heatwave. An official told Associated Press that he had been “basically baked to death”. Three years ago, the water cut out in two of the buildings and prisoners had to relieve themselves into plastic bags.

A man being held at the Rikers Island jail complex is at least the third detainee to die in city custody in recent days, according to New York City correction officials. This year, according to Legal Aid, at least 13 people have died in city custody or shortly after being released.

A man who was being held in a Manhattan police precinct station house was found unconscious and was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, according to a city official. He is at least the fourth detainee in city custody to die in a little over a week. The deaths come as legal and advocacy groups have been critical of what they call the city’s failure to provide adequate care for detainees with potential physical or psychological problems, particularly at Rikers Island, where two detainees died in recent days.

Two Emergency Services Unit correction officers were slashed by a detainee with a long history of violence during a routine transfer at Rikers Island The latest attack underscores the struggle jail officials have in trying to ensure detainees, including those with a disturbing record of assaults, are treated within the law while also maintaining safety and security. Overall, the number of assaults on staff has steadily decreased over the past several years with a slight uptick over the first four months of fiscal year 2025, according to the city’s Mayor’s Management Report.

Communications

The Dane County (WI) Board postponed voting on a five-year contract that would hire Smart Communications to provide communication services for people detained at the county jail. The original contract would have ended inmates' access to physical copies of their mail and instead provided them with electronically scanned copies. Sheriff officials had previously argued replacing physical mail with scanned copies would improve safety for jail staff and residents, citing cases where mail had been the source of contraband. The jail's current communication services provided by ViaPath Technologies include SMS messages, emails and video calls, in addition to physical mail. Although the Sheriff's Office estimates the cost of these services for inmates and their loved ones would lower under the new contract, some argued the services should be free.

Correctional Healthcare Vendors

CorrectHealth

A federal wrongful death lawsuit filed by the mother of a man, Bradley Jacob Fullerton, detained in a northwest Georgia jail says medical staff withheld his prescription medicine, then ignored his deadly seizure, which went on for more than 45 minutes. The seizure leading to Fullerton’s death began shortly after he arrived at the Bartow County Jail on Oct. 17, 2023. He was transferred to Bartow County from the Cherokee County Jail. Both jails have the same medical provider, CorrectHealth, the complaint says.