In the news this week, a spokesperson for a county jail outside Texas says that they paid a medical provider millions of dollars continuously in spite of the fact that there was a pattern of medical neglect. Records show that they received continual reports of medical failures. The jail is negotiating a contract with a new health provider, but they let the problem go on for a long time with the outgoing provider.

Two people allegedly died of medical neglect while they squabbled with the medical provider. The following are among the examples of alleged neglect that occurred month after month, and the medical provider continued to be paid:

• A woman who was incarcerated in the county jail was not provided her prescription medication, and she was rushed to the hospital for seizures.
• Another woman was not given the mental health drugs prescribed to her, and she was placed on suicide watch.
• The medical provider for the jail failed to treat a man’s mental illness. He was discovered unconscious in a single cell and died.
• Without the inmates’ consent, a doctor with the medical provider has been accused of injecting inmates with a drug that treats opioid addiction.
• An inmate died after a deputy found him unconscious in the infirmary at the jail.
• The medical provider continually failed to administer medications in the units that housed inmates with the most serious mental health needs.

Learn more in this continuing series.

Helping Texas jail detainees and their families with resources is one of the purposes of this website. There is no intention of suggesting that people or organizations have been involved in misdeeds.

–Guest Contributor