On Tuesday, the Daviess County Fiscal Court gave approval for the Daviess County Detention Center (DCDC) to contract an alternate health care provider for its inmates.
Daviess County jailer Art Maglinger asked county commissioners for allowance in establishing a partnership with Southern Health Partners (SHP), thereby ending its current contractual partnership with Advanced Correctional Healthcare.
“We’d like to keep our options open as far as providing the best medical care for our inmates,” said Maglinger.
With inmate medical care proving to be an increasingly expensive industry, the price of better health care at DCDC will increase costs by a total of $41,000 over an 8-month period.
Because the county funds the jail, it was up to Daviess County Fiscal Court commissioners to approve the switch. Pending the county attorney’s review of the contract with the jail’s current medical services provider, the jail’s new contract with SHP will take effect 30 days after obtaining approval from the commission.
Across the nation, inmates are prone to a variety of circumstances and health issues that have attributed to rising health care costs for jails and prisons. Chronic diseases are common with inmates, as well as a lack of quality health care prior to incarceration. Moreover, jails are seeing an ever-rising number of those being incarcerated, causing medical expenses to go up based on population alone.
Southern Health Partners provides inmate healthcare to over 200 city and county detention centers across 13 states. SHP services include medical, dental and mental health care for inmates, as well as healthcare education.
