Florida DOC: HealthCare?
If you have a loved one currently incarcerated by the Florida
Department of Corrections (DOC) in their south Florida Region IV
facilities, extending from Homestead to Vero Beach to Manatee County,
I regret to inform you that their health care services have possibly just
gotten worse…
Prison Health Services (PHS) was recently awarded a five year contract, with a five year option to renew, after underbidding their competitors by $200 million. Nationwide, their poor quality of service to inmates has come under criticism. The Pinellas County Jail dropped their contract with Prison Health Services back in 1995.
The DOC has never been known to give state of the art care, but a $200 million underbid causes me to wonder what cuts they intend to make. PHS fully intends to run a profitable operation, so the cuts will be at the expense of the prisoners, who don’t get the benefit of choice, but who urgently need medical, dental and mental health services.
I think it may be too late to ask your representatives to rethink this contract but it would be prudent to ask them to make sure there is active oversight of PHS’s operations so that prisoner health care doesn’t suffer even more. Keep in contact with your imprisoned loved ones, especially those who are in need of medical and mental health services. After all, their incarceration is their punishment, further punishment or mistreatment while incarcerated is not part of their sentences.