Jail boosts in-house health-care wing
Source: By Kim Smith, Arizona Daily Star, 07.09.2007
......... officials at the Pima County jail are quick to brag about the recent changes at their facility, particularly those in the areas of medical and mental health treatment.
........ As UPH Hospital grows, the jail will get more use out of a new telemedicine machine, said jail Capt. Greg Gearhart. The machine lets a doctor and patient in an examining room at the jail on Silverlake Road near Mission Road or at the jail in Ajo consult, via video, with a doctor at UPH Hospital, Gear-hart said.
In addition to the new equipment, the jail has had a new medical provider for the past year. St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services was given a two-year, $18.5 million contract in April 2006. As part of the contract, CMS provides individual, group and recreational therapy to mentally ill inmates — services unavailable at the jail before, Gearhart said.