Thursday, January 29, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

CCA seeks help to pay medical care for inmates

CARSON CITY -- Corrections Corporation of America executives said Wednesday they are losing money running the women's prison in North Las Vegas and want out of the contract unless the state takes over medical care for the 452 inmates.

"We have lost money over the last few years," Vice President Tony Grande said of his company's experience at the Southern Nevada Women's Correctional Facility. "We felt we had to deliver on our promise to operate the prison. But if it does not work, what are we to do as a company?"

Grande and Department of Corrections Medical Director Dr. Ted D'Amico pleaded for the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee to let the state take over medical care for the prison's 452 inmates by March 1.

Instead of receiving $47.79 per day for caring for each inmate, CCA would be paid $33.08 per day. That would be a difference of $14.71 per inmate per day.

D'Amico said the return of that money than would more than cover the state's costs for providing medical and mental health care for inmates. He said the state incurs an average $7.38 per day per inmate cost to provide care at the state prisons it operates.

He maintained female inmates in North Las Vegas receive substandard care and could sue if medical care does not improve.

"We won't incur higher costs," he said. "I can guarantee you that. I know how to run a medical system. Our system is a very good system."

After the hearing, Grande refused to answer reporters' questions on how much money his company has lost operating the women's prison.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, balked at quick approval of the plan. He said the state should look at CCA's financial records and determine how much the company has been paying for medical care. Raggio was the primary legislator who campaigned a decade ago to privatize at least one state prison.

He questioned if returning medical care to state responsibility would lead to a high state liability.

"We are responsible to people who pay taxes in this state," Raggio said.

But D'Amico pleaded for legislators to show compassion for the inmates and said it would be "dangerous to wait." He added his staff has done five audits of medical care in the women's prison and concluded its care does not meet the standards of other prisons.

During the meeting, Assembly Ways and Means Chairman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, appointed a subcommittee of legislators to meet with CCA and the Department of Corrections to determine if the state should take over medical care in the prison.

Raggio will chair the committee, which also includes Sens. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas and Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas. Other members will be Assembly members David Parks and Kathy McClain, both D-Las Vegas, and John Marvel, R-Battle Mountain.

The subcommittee will report on its findings at the Interim Finance Committee's meeting in March.

But several legislators said they thought all along that it was a mistake to turn a state prison over to private company control.

"This is the fear we had at the beginning," said Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning, D-North Las Vegas. "Our worst fears have come to fruition. We shouldn't tolerate this any longer."

Chowning also noted that a CCA-employed guard at the women's prison recently impregnated an inmate.

Coffin said legislators should not allow CCA to "cherry pick" and keep running the prison while turning medical care duties over to the state.

"The whole concept of a private prison is troublesome to me," Coffin said. "They finally hit a cost they could not recover. We ought to shake the hands of CCA and pull away."

John Tighe, CCA's vice president of medical services, said the company was forced to fly in nurses because it could not find them locally.

He said it has been difficult to find health care workers for the prison medical staff because of rumors in the Southern Nevada medical community that the state would take over the prison.

Tighe added medical costs are high at the prison in part because when a female inmate suffers serious health problem at one of the state's two honor camps for women she automatically is sent to the women's prison. "We end up with inmates when they are very sick," he said.

Raggio, however, pointed out that when he campaigned for prison privatization, CCA and other private firms contended they could recruit medical personnel better than the state.

"This is very disturbing to me," he said.