On March 29, Louisiana citizens will vote on four constitutional amendments and while Amendment 2 seems to be attracting the most attention, thanks in large part to opposition by churches, the remaining three haven’t received much scrutiny.
Maybe they should. Particularly Amendment 3.
That’s partly because the legislature is proposing to toss youthful offenders, kids, into adult penitentiaries with hardened criminals.
The counter-argument is that yes, they are youths, but the ones we’re proposing be prosecuted and penalized as adults are themselves criminals, habitual offenders.
Overlooked in the debate about the merits of sending youths to adult prisons is the issue of health care that is already stretched to its limits in the adult jails.
Health care of inmates is generally contracted out to private concerns and in many of those cases, there have been problems and prisoners have died as the result of neglect.
CorrectHealth is one company that is currently contracted to several parish jails that has experienced criticism over inconsistent care, high death rates understaffing and data breaches, according to online news stories.
CorrectHealth was awarded a $5.29 million contract in 2016 when East Baton Rouge Parish made the decision to place its prison health care in private hands.
Other Louisiana parishes who currently or have had contracts with the Georgia company include St. Mary, Lafourche, Iberia, Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard and Tangipahoa.
Three years into its contract, however, the East Baton Rouge Parish jail still experienced the same problems. The prisoner death rate was twice the national average. The company’s internal investigations into the deaths were withheld from public view, prompting prisoner rights advocate Rev. Alexis Anderson to observe, “We are locking people in cages – people being held pretrial, who haven’t been convicted of any crime – and allowing them to die there.”
In 2021, East Baton Rouge switched health care providers when it awarded a $6 million contact to Turn Key Health of Oklahoma, a company that appeared to experience a similar record.
The TEXAS TRIBUNE noted last year that dozens of patients had died in Turn Key’s care. NEWSWEEKreported in 2023 that the company had been sued at least 160 times since 2015
Turn Key also contracted to provide health care to prisoners in Tangipahoa and St. Tammany parishes.
Heath Warden, warden of the Tangipahoa jail wrote a glowing review of Turn Key when he said, “Their attention to detail and level of accountability has far surpassed services previously provided. It is my opinion and experience with having TK Health as our contract provider that the services and care for our offenders, coupled with the administrative support, has far exceeded my expectations.”
Reviews from employees themselves, however, were not as kind. They cited low pay, limited raises, lack of job security, management issues, high insurance costs and concerns about patient care.
It seems that no matter who is in charge of prisoner health care, there are likely to be serious concerns about inadequate access to health care, low-quality care, high prevalence of chronic diseases, mental health issues and th risks of preventable deaths as well as a general lack of standards and the high costs.
Whether or not there is a direct correlation, statistics show that every year spend incarcerated shortens one’s life expectancy by two years.
That should be one consideration on voters’ minds when they case their ballots on Amendment 3 on March 29
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Louisiana Voice 