Editorial: Emerging pattern / Jail contractor's 'service' troublesome
Source: Daytona Beach News Journal (FL), July 17, 2007
Volusia County officials took a leap of faith two years ago, hiring a private company to handle health care at local correctional facilities. They took that leap knowing full well that the company -- Tennessee-based Prison Health Services -- had a troubled history.
........ Within a year of the contract, there were rumblings about trouble. One local minister said her husband was deprived of his antianxiety and antidepression medication at the jail -- and subsequently turned violent. Local defense attorneys said their clients weren't getting the medication they needed to be lucid for court.
In recent months, the picture has become much clearer. Inmates who come into the jail on medication for mental disorders are routinely deprived of it -- no matter how badly they need it, and despite the fact that many of these medications carry stern warnings against discontinuing them suddenly.