Oversight or Medicaid? But Is Medicaid Still A Healthcare Reentry Strategy?

Highlighted Stories

Editor's Note

This week’s first highlighted story come from Piscataquis County, Maine, where the state Department of Corrections shut down the local jail due to serious health and safety concerns.

Maine, like several other states, promulgates standards that county jails are expected to follow to ensure the safety and wellbeing of incarcerated individuals. The state inspects each county jail every two years, and in its latest biennial inspection, found the Piscataquis facility significantly out of compliance. The sheriff responded by suggesting the lapses were partly due to the jail’s efforts to meet the standards of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA).

The second highlighted story comes from Oregon where the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) struggles to find beds for mentally ill patients who are being detained in jail. A federal judge has found the OHA in contempt of court and has begun fining the authority for not treating these people. Currently the fine amounts to around a quarter million dollars (the OHA tried appealing this ruling in June).

We highlight these stories to reinforce a long-standing theme of the Weekly Update: the relative ineffectiveness of one government bureaucracy or federal court attempting to hold accountable those who are responsible for healthcare within correctional environments. This was the focus of our December 10, 2024 Editor’s Note, and just as in that note we repeat that if an incarcerated person was a Medicaid beneficiary there would be rights that transcended whether the jail was too busy meeting PREA standards. Also those rights would not be dependent on judges holding health authorities in contempt of court.

Looking back to that December 2024 note, we were holding our breath, wondering what the Trump administration’s return might mean for Medicaid in correctional settings. Now, with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law, we are beginning to see how this plays out in practice. At the state level, perhaps germane to the Oregon story, that state appears to be walking away from its 1115 waiver to provide Medicaid coverage for individuals preparing to reenter the community. Meanwhile, in California, San Benito County has dropped Wellpath and signed with MEDIKO—at a higher cost. The sheriff is hoping this higher price tag can be offset through CalAIM by billing Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid).

At the national level, a recent piece from Trade Offs takes a kumbaya perspective, suggesting that both parties support Medicaid coverage for reentry, at least nominally. The article notes that individuals released from incarceration will be exempt from Medicaid’s new work requirements—for 90 days. But as The Marshall Project points out, 90 days is hardly sufficient to reestablish care for someone exiting the carceral system. Since the ACA was passed in 2010, COCHS saw the opportunity to use Medicaid to connect the silos of the healthcare system and the criminal justice system (see 2010 COCHS Convening: Exploring Health Reform and Criminal Justice: Rethinking the Connection between Jails and Community Health). An ending of Medicaid eligibility which some believe could be the outcome of the work requirements is likely to reestablish the silos that the ACA has slowly been breaking down.

Maine

Following a routine inspection done every other year, Maine Department of corrections found numerous critical failures in the Piscataquis County Jail’s health and safety system. The department notified the jail that it was restricting the jail’s operations. The jail was ordered to return the inmates it has been boarding to their respective counties.The Piscataquis County Jail removed a third of its inmates after learning it failed a state inspection, and the Maine Department of Corrections restricted the jail's operations. On top of halting any plans to accept inmates, the jail was ordered to return the inmates it has been boarding to their respective counties.Jail Administrator Jean Larson confirmed that the facility started with 36 inmates. Six inmates were sent back to the Penobscot County Jail, and another six were sent to the Androscoggin County Jail. In a statement on social media, Piscataquis County Sheriff Robert Young explained that the jail fell out of state compliance as it worked to meet the standards of the Prison Rape Elimination Act.

Oregon

The Oregon Health Authority has racked up more than a quarter-million dollars in fines in just over two months — connected to a federal contempt order and how long mentally ill defendants are waiting in jail without being transferred to the Oregon State Hospital for treatment. In June, a federal judge found Oregon to be in contempt of court for repeatedly failing to admit people in jail, who were in need of mental health care, to the state psychiatric hospital within the legally required seven days.

Medicaid & Reentry

More than two years ago, faced with a growing addiction crisis in the state, Oregon health officials began work on an innovative program that would help people about to be released from jail or prison receive targeted health services through Medicaid. The reentry benefits program appeared to be on track to launch in late 2025 for juveniles and early 2026 for adults, with state funds earmarked for it in Gov. Tina Kotek’s two-year budget proposal released in December. But this summer, the program was quietly delayed. Kristen Lambert, a spokesperson for the Oregon Health Authority, told InvestigateWest in an email that the program was put on pause in anticipation of sweeping changes to Medicaid funding under President Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending cuts package, referred to as his “Big Beautiful Bill.”

San Benito County Jail is transitioning to a new healthcare provider for the first time in over 20 years, with a $3.5 million contract signed with Mediko to enhance medical, dental, and mental health services for inmates. The new five-year contract with Mediko replaces longtime provider Wellpath and costs over a million dollars more than the previous arrangement, presenting funding challenges. Sheriff Taylor expressed hope that the new CalAIM initiative would allow the county to bill Medi-Cal for services, potentially offsetting the increased costs. "What we're really hoping is through the new CalAIM initiative, we're able to now start billing Medi-Cal for services that we were never able to bill for prior. So we're hoping that there's going to be a revenue stream on the other side of this from the state of California through Medi-Cal. That's going to offset the increased cost," Taylor said.

More than half of states — from deep blue California to solidly red Louisiana — want to bring Medicaid behind bars in hopes of saving the lives of people as they leave jail and prison. The GOP megabill signed by President Trump last month will slash $1 trillion over the next decade from the public health insurance program that covers roughly 80 million low-income Americans. An estimated 10 million people are expected to lose their Medicaid coverage as a result. It remains to be seen whether the Trump administration will continue to approve these state initiatives. However, the GOP plan to add work requirements to Medicaid exempts people who are incarcerated or in the first 90 days post-release — a potential sign of continued bipartisan support for this vulnerable population.

Over the past 15 years, formerly incarcerated people have greatly benefited from expansions to Medicaid healthcare coverage. Those gains are now at risk in the face of an estimated $1 trillion in federal spending cuts outlined in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Experts who spoke to The Marshall Project warn that the lost coverage will lead to unnecessary deaths. The expansion of Medicaid under President Barack Obama’s 2010 Affordable Care Act, was the first major advance in access to care. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the act made health insurance available to 80% to 90% of formerly incarcerated people who had previously been ineligible. The new law does have some carve outs that could blunt the impact on incarcerated people, most notably a pause on work requirements for three months after a person has been released from prison. However, realistically, the three-month pause is not enough time to find onee's footing after prison.

Follow Ups

Editor's Comment: In this week’s Follow-Ups, we return to the executive order titled Ending Crime and Disorder on America's Streets. As our subscribers can well imagine, the order has generated innumerable articles, and op-eds. To spare you the task of wading through them all, we’ve selected just five: two in support, two in opposition, and one that acknowledges both pros and cons.

And then—once again—there’s New York State. More videos have surfaced showing correctional officers abusing incarcerated individuals. On the other side of the story, correctional officers continue to push back: they’re criticizing the state’s report on the recent wildcat strike and doubling down on their opposition to HALT—the legislation aimed at limiting solitary confinement.

Ending Crime and Disorder on America's Streets

Supporting

In an op-ed John Tillman, CEO of the American Culture Project, writes: It's easy to see why this executive order has stirred so much controversy. The president used over-the-top rhetoric to declare that he’s “ending crime and disorder on America’s streets,” and the centerpiece of his plan can sound aggressive for a liberty-minded nation. Put simply, the president is making it easier to involuntarily commit homeless people to mental hospitals and substance abuse treatment programs. But the human side of the story deserves more attention, especially two realities. First, the homeless are disproportionately likely to struggle with mental health, addiction or both. A staggering 77% of homeless people experience mental health disorders. About two-thirds have dealt with drug or alcohol abuse. The second reality is that it is incredibly difficult for loved ones to commit homeless, mentally ill people against their will, even when that’s the only real path to getting them help and even saving their lives.

The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board writes: Anyone who has spent time in urban areas knows that cities have a serious problem with deeply troubled people living on the streets, on park benches and in encampments. It is not now, nor has it ever been, humane to decide that society’s response should be to let people live in the torment of their illness or addiction because that’s their “choice.” Trump’s executive order is an effort to make the process of civil commitment easier for people “who pose a risk to themselves or to the public or are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves.”

Opposing

Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets raises serious constitutional and civil rights concerns—particularly regarding due process under the Fourteenth Amendment and the rights of individuals with disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Its proposed standard for commitment—encompassing not only those who pose a risk to self or others but also those who are merely unable to care for themselves—falls short of established constitutional safeguards. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that involuntary civil commitment is a profound deprivation of liberty. In Olmstead v. L.C, the Court affirmed that unjustified institutionalization of people with mental disabilities constitutes unlawful discrimination under the ADA. The Order’s push for institutionalization—regardless of availability of community-based alternatives—not only disregards this mandate but also threatens to systemically violate the rights of unhoused individuals with mental illness. The ABA Commission on Disability Rights opposes the sweeping misuse of federal power to promote a policy that segregates individuals with disabilities from society.

The agenda of the executive order, Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets, is to institutionalize unhoused people with the proposed intention of making cities safer. There is no attempt to address violent crime that is not perpetrated by people who are homeless, yet the order targets every person living on the street with a history of substance use or psychiatric disorder, regardless of whether history of criminal behavior. In addition, the order does not include a mechanism for addressing the problem of homelessness for people who do not have either condition. Although the order does not explicitly provide for housing or funding for more hospital beds, it calls to abolish current housing options. The president’s order requires the collection of health-related information from those individuals who receive federal funding for homelessness assistance and requires that information is shared with law enforcement. There is no mention in this order of funding new facilities or increasing bed capacity.

Pro & Con

While the EO does not directly criminalize homelessness, it does condition federal grants on active enforcement of laws related to public drug use, squatting, and camping in public spaces. The EO also promotes targeted, court-supervised civil commitment for individuals experiencing severe mental illness or addiction who pose a risk to themselves or others and discourages commitment standards that prohibit intervention until someone reaches a threshold of imminent danger. Importantly, the EO does not seek to revive outdated models of institutionalization; rather, it outlines a path forward that emphasizes transparency, oversight, and modern clinical care. Organizations including the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Mental Health America, and the American Civil Liberties Union have raised thoughtful concerns about due process, privacy, and the potential for overreach. But doing nothing is also a risk, especially when current systems leave vulnerable people to languish in encampments without intervention. Trump’s EO highlights the fact that something different must be done.

New York State

NBC News' Dan Slepian reveals never-before-seen footage of prison violence at the hands of corrections officers in New York, and interviews the man who is finalizing a settlement agreement with the state over the alleged abuse. It shows a pattern going back at least a decade. In the last year alone, the state’s had two high-profile deaths in custody: Robert Brooks and Messiah Nantwi, both beaten by officers. Slepian also sits down with the Commissioner of New York State prisons and the father of Robert Brooks.

The New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA), the union that represents corrections officers in New York issued a report on the conditions inside state-owned prison facilities, which led to a widespread, weeks-long strike of their security personnel. NYSCOPBA said that officers were pushed to their breaking point in the years and months leading up to the strike, and said the culpability for that rests on lawmakers in Albany, and not on the officers who ended up walking off the job. The union also claims that officers were working excessive overtime hours as a result of short staffing, all while dealing with rampant drug exposures and contraband, among other safety issues, which they attribute to the 2022 HALT Act, which limits the use of solitary confinement in state prisons.

Mental Health

Hundreds of mentally ill detainees who were found unfit to stand trial are languishing in New York City’s jails because the state has been too slow in moving them through its byzantine treatment system, a public defender organization said in a lawsuit. Under New York State law, people who are too mentally ill to understand the charges against them and aid in their own defense are supposed to be restored to competency in a hospital operated by the state Office of Mental Health before their legal proceedings can continue. But bed and staffing shortages at the hospitals have led to long delays in people receiving the care, leaving them to linger on Rikers Island, the suit.

Approximately 70% of incarcerated youth in the United States have a mental disorder. The challenges in this population are profound – about 30% report suicidal thoughts, 12% have attempted suicide and 25% experience solitary confinement, a condition strongly associated with increased suicide risk. Depression is also widespread, affecting 10% to 25% of youth with moderate to severe symptoms. Researchers from Florida Atlantic University examined the effectiveness of commonly used screening tools in detecting depression and suicidality among incarcerated youth. Results of the study reveal troubling gaps in the accuracy and fairness of mental health screenings used with incarcerated youth.

One of the jobs available to federal inmates is a position no one talks about much: suicide watch companion. The Suicide Watch program exists for inmates who say they are feeling suicidal and ask for help, or are found by the Psychology staff to be at risk of harming themselves or someone else. The process for selecting inmates to serve as suicide companions is thorough. Anyone who wishes to be on “The Watch” must be approved by SIS (Special Investigative Services — basically the BOP’s version of the FBI), the warden and, of course, Psychology.

The Mesa County Detention Facility is no longer providing a competency enhancement program for inmates after cuts in state funding meant the program had to shut down. The competency enhancement program was used to provide extra services for people in the jail either waiting for restoration or who have come back from the state mental hospital after they’ve been restored to competency. The Mesa County Commissioners, who approved the jail’s health services contract with jail healthcare provider NaphCare last fall, approved a $245,000 reduction in the $5.7 million.

An Alabama inmate’s stay of execution will continue pending the completion of a mental health evaluation. Attorneys representing David Lee Roberts argue that his death sentence should be suspended due to severe illness. Roberts has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis, hears voices and is delusional, they said in a court filing. He also recently attempted to burn tattoos off his arm and leg because he believed they “are trying to control his thoughts,” his lawyers said.

ICE

Luis Manuel Rivas Velásquez, imprisoned at the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as Alligator Alcatraz, was seen by other detainees unconscious on the cell floor, with guards seeming to not know how to take his pulse. The accounts raise questions about medical care and treatment at the detention center, one of many unknowns regarding its day-to-day operations. Florida officials have defended the center, the first run by a state for federal immigration detainees, as an example of how a state can swiftly try to assist the Trump administration with its crackdown on illegal immigration. Other states have said they plan to follow a similar model.

Cibola is a federal facility outside Albuquerque with a series of units in which people in the custody of the USMS and local county law enforcement, along with immigrants in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) custody, are detained. The jail is owned and operated by CoreCivic. An alarmingly high number of deaths have occurred at the facility in recent years. One of the fatalities was that of Ramirez, 28. Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating what the agency in an affidavit called an “epidemic” of drug smuggling at the facility, including allegations that some CoreCivic workers have been involved.

The death of a man at Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Philipsburg, Pa. — one of the country’s largest immigrant detention centers — has sparked renewed calls to shut down the facility. Chaofeng Ge, a 32-year-old Chinese citizen, was pronounced dead early Tuesday morning after he was found unresponsive, hanging by the neck in the shower room of his detention pod. Mr. Ge had been in custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for five days and had been awaiting a hearing before the U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review. On Wednesday, Pennsylvania State Police ruled his death a suicide. His is the 13th death ICE reported in its custody nationally this year.

On paper — which is to say, in federal law — members of Congress have an ironclad right to conduct in-person oversight of ICE facilities. By law, ICE may not prohibit a member of Congress from entering “any facility operated by or for the Department of Homeland Security used to detain or otherwise house” immigrants, including when members arrive unannounced at a facility. In June, ICE issued an updated guidance memo for congressional access to detention facilities. Despite the plain text of the law, the memo stated that members of Congress would be required to give 72 hours’ notice before a facility visit, and a DHS spokesperson suggested as much as a week’s notice would be necessary.

Co-Pays

Michigan prisoners are avoiding preventive care because of co-pays for basic trips to the doctor, according to critics backing new bipartisan legislation to eliminate the fees, a move they say could improve health outcomes and save taxpayers money down the line. A typical non-emergency medical appointment currently costs Michigan prisoners $5 per visit. An inmate can earn as little as 74 cents per day. Given the choice between a doctor’s visit or spending their money on other basic needs, inmate advocates say many will choose the latter. In 2024, inmates paid $202,580 in health care co-pays, required whenever an inmate initiates a medical appointment. Michigan is one of 16 states where the co-pay costs more than the average weekly wage for inmates. (For more on co-pays see Editor's Note of August 13, 2024: JAMA: Co-pays In Corrections Dissuade Health Care Treatment JAMA: Co-pays In Corrections Dissuade Health Care Treatment).

Pregnancy

The majority of incarcerated women in the U.S. are parents to minor children and while estimates vary, one study found that each year, 4% of women entering prison and 3% of women entering jail are pregnant. Studies have consistently shown that as the number of incarcerated women – and incarcerated mothers, in particular – has risen, prisons have struggled to meet the unique needs of this population. We know the COVID-19 pandemic had a rapid and profoundly harmful impact on incarcerated people, however, there has been little attention to the impact on care for pregnant and postpartum individuals. While already limited, the capacity of carceral facilities to provide these supports to pregnant and postpartum people drastically shifted following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Deaths In Custody

Under the federal Death in Custody Reporting Act, anyone who dies in law enforcement custody, like during an arrest, must be reported to the Department of Justice. A Marshall Project review of the data found that inaccuracies were plaguing the government’s record of in-custody deaths. We identified hundreds of people who died in custody but weren’t listed, and entire states that failed to report almost any deaths in their prisons or in their jails. The overwhelming majority of the records did not meet the Justice Department’s own minimum standards for accuracy and completeness. About one in six didn’t specify the manner of death. Despite these failures, the Justice Department has never once used the law’s ability to withhold a portion of federal funding from law enforcement agencies that fail to accurately report deaths in custody.

Thousands of people die in U.S. prisons and jails each year. The surviving families are often left asking basic questions: What happened, and could the death have been prevented? Too often, families never receive the answers they seek. Instead, many are met with silence from correction officials or must navigate varying and unclear procedures to claim their loved ones’ bodies and personal effects. If you are dealing with the death of an incarcerated person, keep in mind that every case is different, and you should seek an attorney’s advice on what your options are under the laws where your loved one died and where you live.

Opioid Epidemic

his study describes the delivery of opioid use disorder (OUD) services in a Pacific Northwest County jail focusing on screening, assessment, withdrawal management, and medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). Guided by the 2023 Medicaid performance measures, self-assessment data were collected through stakeholder interviews, policy and electronic healthcare records (EHR) analyses, and a systematic survey focusing on conformity to practice, policy, and documentation.

Sheriffs

One out of every three people behind bars is being held in a local jail, yet the 3,000+ sheriffs that control them operate with little to no oversight — and the consequences are deadly. Hundreds of people, many of whom are held pretrial and have not been convicted of a crime, die each year in local jails from suicide, overdoses, violence, and neglect. Safety Bound, an organization that works to reimagine the role of sheriffs, has created a policy platform with seven demands that advocates can use to curb the unchecked power of sheriffs, reduce jail populations, and improve conditions inside these facilities.

Bail

In criminal court, judges generally have three options when someone accused of a crime comes before them at arraignment. They can release the defendant with the promise that he or she return for subsequent hearings and trial; order them detained; or release them on bail. Starting in the late 2010s, many states started to take a hard look at bail laws. New Jersey and Alaska are among the leaders in eliminating bail for many criminal cases. President Trump called revisions in bail law a “disaster.” Conservatives argue that such policies have contributed to increased lawlessness, but the data does not support their argument. There is little evidence that changes in bail laws have led to an increase in crime. In New Jersey, where bail was practically eliminated in 2017, there has been no increase in gun violence since the changes were instituted.

State Roundup

California

Local government agencies in charge of youth violated the educational and civil rights of students in Los Angeles County’s juvenile justice facilities for decades by punting responsibility and inaction. “This broken system perpetuates a harmful cycle of ‘finger-pointing,’ often between Probation and Los Angeles County Office of Education, which hinders the resolution of issues that significantly affect the education of incarcerated youth,” wrote the Education Justice Coalition, authors of the report. The authors listed three demands for the board of supervisors, including reducing youth incarceration by way of implementing the previously approved Youth Justice Reimagined plan, providing access to high-quality education, and adopting transparency and accountability measures.

Connecticut

State Sen. Saud Anwar, co-chair of the state’s Public Health Committee, recently made a rare request to the state Department of Correction. Listening to concerns from the community about the long-term negative implications of solitary confinement, Anwar wanted to experience it himself, asking to be incarcerated in the Garner Correctional Institution for 72 hours. The DOC denied the request due to “substantial safety, security and logistical concerns,” according to a letter from Connecticut DOC Commissioner Angel Quiros. Political columnist Kevin Rennie criticized Anwar for the request, calling it “performative nonsense.”

Georgia

A group of incarcerated transgender women and men have sued Georgia corrections officials, challenging a new law that prevents them from receiving gender-affirming medical care. The lawsuit accuses the state of violating the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Five transgender plaintiffs — two men and three women — brought the class action lawsuit on behalf of nearly 300 other people in Georgia state prisons, who argue that the state’s law will have “catastrophic consequences.” In some cases it is forcing trans people who have already received hormone replacement therapy and other services for years to detransition without their consent.

Two former correctional officers at the Augusta State Medical Prison were indicted on Tuesday for allegedly letting an inmate burn to death, according to a release from the United States Department of Justice. The release said that, as a result of the two-count indictment, the former officers, Robert Roberson and Marcus Phillips, were formally charged with violating the constitutional rights of an inmate by showing deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of harm to an inmate, which resulted in his death.

Louisiana

A three-member panel of Louisiana’s parole board granted medical release to a quadriplegic prisoner who is currently suing the state over health care conditions at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Kentrell Parker suffered a traumatic spinal cord injury while playing in a prison-sponsored football game more than 15 years ago. He is paralyzed from the neck down and requires round-the-clock care, making him eligible for a medical treatment furlough.

Nevada

The Nevada Department of Corrections on Tuesday confirmed its ongoing investigation into at least four inmate homicides over the past month. "The deaths were in different housing units and appear unrelated," an NDOC spokesperson stated in a news release. "NDOC officials suspect drug debt is an exacerbating factor." According to NDOC's director, James Dzurenda, the department is consulting with outside experts to find ways "to curtail the influx of contraband and illegal substances into the institutions" and forming committees of experts to address drugs and violence.

North Carolina

To give more seriously ill incarcerated people the opportunity to go home before they die, North Carolina lawmakers expanded the eligibility criteria of prison medical release in 2023. In 2024 the North Carolina Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission granted early medical release to four people out of a total statewide prison population of about 32,000 people. For advocates of early medical release, these numbers feel “disappointingly low.”

Rhode Island

A federal appeals court has ruled that individual administrators at the Adult Correctional Institutions should have known that a man placed in solitary confinement for more than a year after overdosing on opiates was a serious risk of deterioration after he complained repeatedly about being deprived of human interaction and sleep. Jerry Cintron, 47, sued the Department of Corrections and various prison officials in 2019 after he received 450 days of disciplinary confinement for alleged infractions that he said were brought in retaliation for him refusing to tell investigators how he accessed the opiates.

Utah

An inmate says jailers in Weber County broke his back in a dispute that began with him asking for properly-served kosher meals.The inmate, Corey N. Chesney, 38, says the altercation left him unable to walk. His civil attorney, April Hollingsworth, said that the conflict over Chesney’s Jewish beliefs has resumed and her client has not eaten since Saturday. Hollingsworth described a call she received on Wednesday night. Another inmate at the Weber County jail called alerting her to what was happening in Chesney’s cell. “I don't know what they were doing to Corey but, I could hear in the background Corey screaming,” Hollingsworth reported.

Correctional Healthcare Vendors

Wellpath

One of the areas that the Lake County Civil Grand Jury looked into in their 2024-2025 report was Medical Services at the Lake County Jail. The Grand Jury found inmates experienced delays in getting necessary medications. Despite staffing shortages contributing to these delays, the medications were dispensed to the inmates.There have been concerns about Wellpath’s performance. Jail authorities provided the Grand Jury with 11 grievances that inmates had, which weren’t declared “unfounded” by Wellpath’s staff. Concerns about Wellpath’s performance extended beyond Lake County. Other counties across California (like Monterey, Alameda, and Santa Barbara) have reported “issues with service delays, transparency, contract fulfillment and deaths.”

Physician Correctional USA

The mother of a man who died in custody at the St. Louis City Justice Center has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against corrections staff, nurses, the city and a corrections-focused health care provider. The lawsuit argues that corrections officers were aware that Hayes wasn’t well when he was handcuffed and removed from his cell and that an employee said Hayes was “falling every chance he could.” The lawsuit also alleges that Physician Correctional USA, the city jail health care provider, committed medical malpractice in restraining Hayes and failing to follow proper medical procedures.