by Sam Rutherford

As PLN reported, the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) has for many years outsourced its constitutional obligation to provide healthcare to those it confines, contracting the service from private, for-profit corporations. The terrible cost of this arrangement to prisoners’ health—not to mention $8 million in lawsuit settlement payments to them or their estates—was laid bare in agreements obtained from Centurion Correctional Healthcare of New Mexico, LLC, which was NMCD’s private medical contractor from June 6, 2016, to October 31, 2019. [See: PLN, Dec. 2024, p.1.]

But a similarly grim story emerges from settlement agreements obtained from Wexford Health Sources, Inc., which took over the NMCD contract after Centurion. Since its founding in 1992, its website says Wexford “has focused on nothing but correctional health care.” The company provides medical, mental health and dental care to nearly 100,000 prisoners at over 100 jails and prisons across the U.S. Over its three-plus decades, Wexford has also gained a reputation as an unconscionable prison medical provider driven strictly by profits, with little regard for the health or safety of its prisoner patients.

NMCD originally contracted with Wexford in 2004 but canceled the contract in 2007, as PLN reported, after an ...

The commissary operated in San Diego County jails collected enough revenue from detainee purchases to pump up the balance in its Incarcerated Persons’ Welfare Fund (IPWF) to $11.1 million by June 30, 2024. But the office of Sheriff Kelly A. Martinez provided few details about fund spending, which state Penal Code § 4025e says “shall be used solely for the benefit and welfare of” those incarcerated.

Rather, county commissioners received a one-page report announcing that $5.7 million was spent from the fund in the previous fiscal year. An accompanying pie chart noted that 75% went to educational programs, without providing any specifics. Bus passes and other goods and services for indigent detainees consumed another 11% of that total. About $700,000 more went to cover supplies, operations, equipment and other services. In years past, this included vehicle fuel and maintenance, as well as employee cellphones and even out-of-county travel. But again, no detail was provided. The report showed that the lion’s share of IPWF spending—75%—went to “educational services,” which the law allows the Sheriff to use for salaries of employees who provide them. But again, no details were provided.

County resident Paul Henkin complained in an email, “To call an annotated pie ...

Pre-trial detainees found not criminally responsible in Maine are being quietly transferred from the state’s Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta to Columbia Regional Care Center, a South Carolina psychiatric lockup owned by Wellpath, Inc. Wellpath has filed for federal bankruptcy court protection, as reported elsewhere in this issue. [See: PLN, Jan. 2025, p.1.]

In the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2024, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) spent $53.8 million to run Riverview and another $1.2 million on six treatment beds at Columbia. Just a month earlier, 29 of 92 licensed beds at Riverview were empty.

DHHS spokesperson Lindsay Hammes said that those sent south had “demonstrated a high level of violence” or assaulted other staff and patients. But transferees reported harsher conditions at Columbia than at Riverview: more isolation and less privacy from omnipresent guards, as well as increased use of restraints and limited access to treatment and activities.

Anthony Reed, the first Maine defendant sent to the South Carolina lockup in 2015, died there in December 2023; DHHS has released no information about the death, except that Reed was 48. His transfer had already raised the eyebrows of an Augusta judge, as well as ...

On May 20, 2024, a federal jury in Alabama returned a verdict against a doctor employed by Wexford Health Sources, Inc., the private medical provider contracted by the state Department of Corrections (DOC). It was part of a civil rights action brought by a prisoner who suffered medical neglect that eventually led to the amputation of his toes.

When Canyon Duff Moye arrived at Kilby Correctional Facility in August 2019, he had an injury to his left foot. But the foot’s condition was “stable, with no open sores or need for medical treatment,” as recalled in the complaint he later filed. Less than a week later, however, he had developed blisters due to the low-quality shoes he was issued.

Moye received a “no-work” slip from the medical department, but prison officials required him to continue working anyway. He was transferred to Fountain Correctional Facility a few months later, and the blisters on his foot worsened and developed into open sores. By late 2019, “there was a stench from the wounds on [his] foot” and “holes in the pad of [his] foot below the big toe and below the middle toe area,” all of which was documented in a photo taken ...

On November 11, 2024, Wellpath Holdings, Inc., and its affiliated corporate entities filed for bankruptcy protection in United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Wellpath is a private, for-profit medical and mental health care provider at approximately 420 detention facilities in 39 states; as PLN readers know, the company is also often sued for providing substandard and even fatal care to prisoner-patients. [See, e.g.: PLN, July 2024, p.53.]

Wellpath’s filing cites “escalating operating and labor costs, a transitory increase in professional liability insurance expenses, and underperformance on several significant contracts” as the primary reasons for seeking bankruptcy protection. The company asked the bankruptcy court for protection while it restructures its debt so it may remain in business.

In the way a typical bankruptcy case unfolds, creditors form a committee and provide the court an estimate of the bankrupt company’s outstanding obligations. The court then orders the company to set aside funds to partially settle some—or more often, just a part—of these obligations and then enters an order discharging the unpaid balance. Any litigation pending against the company is typically stayed pending final resolution of the bankruptcy proceeding.

So how does this impact prisoners with cases involving Wellpath? ...

On June 18, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld the conviction of a private prison transport driver for violating the civil rights of detainees. Anthony Buntyn, 56, a former driver for private prison transport firm Prisoner Transportation Services (PTS) of America, was convicted by a jury in federal court for the District of New Mexico in September 2022 and sentenced the following February to two years in federal prison for debasing and degrading detainees in a van that he drove through the state in March 2017.

The jury agreed that Buntyn violated the detainees’ Fourteenth Amendment due-process rights when he retaliated against those who complained by chaining them inside a van segregation cage for hours without breaks for food or water. Cranking up the heat in the already hot van when they protested, he refused to stop for bathroom breaks—leaving them to make do with empty plastic bottles.

Officials at the jail in Shawnee County, Kansas, alerted federal authorities in Topeka to the abuse, leading to an FBI investigation and charges against Buntyn. After his trial and conviction, he appealed to the Tenth Circuit arguing that the evidence against him was insufficient; that the ...

Drawing from a research database of commissary pricing and markups culled from 26 state prison systems, a report published by The Appeal on April 17, 2024, found commissary prices “up to five times higher than in the community,” with markups reaching 600%.

To supplement paltry and unappetizing chow hall meals, prisoners use commissaries that typically stock a variety of snacks, candy and soft drinks, as well as staples such as peanut butter and condiments. Other common food items include meat and fish pouches; tuna and mackerel are especially popular. But in Tennessee prisons, a serving of roast beef costs $7.60, while a pouch of seasoned pork is almost $8.00. The most popular commissary food, ramen soup, illustrates how widely prices may vary, from as little as $.42 for a serving in Tennessee’s prison system up to $1.06 in the Florida Department of Corrections (DOC). Outside of prison, ramen is $.30 or less when bought in bulk.

“Some of the highest-priced ramen in the country was sold at commissaries run by Keefe Group, which is controlled by the private equity firm HIG Capital,” the report noted.

Pricy Personal Necessities

While prison systems supply free hygiene items to indigent prisoners, quality is ...

On November 19, 2024, prison telecom Securus Technologies, Inc., along with subsidiary JPay, notified users of services provided by the firms at prisons and jails of steps being taken to comply with a recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order. As PLN reported, that August 2024 order capped phone rates at $.06 per minute for prisons and $.12 per minute for jails; video calling transaction fees were also eliminated and rates capped at $.16 per minute in prisons and $.11 to $.25 per minute in jails, depending on size. [See: PLN, Oct. 2024, p.1.]

In its announcement of these changes, Securus/JPay advised incarcerated users that it currently doesn’t have the functionality to charge by the minute for video calling, as the order requires. So free video calling “may” be offered at some lockups while the firms revamped their programs to accommodate the order. But the announcement also included a vague threat that “some facilities might choose to temporarily disable video calling.”

Meanwhile, on November 19, 2024, Securus Video Connect went offline throughout the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) for five days while a “system update” was underway. Video calling in DOC prisons currently costs $4.95 for 30 minutes—a little over 3% ...

On October 9, 2024, Turn Key Health Clinics ended its contract to provide healthcare at the Oklahoma County Jail in Oklahoma City. The firm gave notice 30 days earlier, after winning just a one-year $7.4 million extension to the contract it has held since 2018; Turn Key wanted a longer deal, and when it didn’t get one, it terminated its contract and left.

In doing so, the contractor accused jailers of maintaining insufficient guard staff to provide security and escorts for detainees needing medical attention. “We can’t provide the quality of care we expect from our team if we can’t access patients in need,” declared company spokesperson Kenna Griffin.

After the Oklahoma County Justice Authority (OCJA) took over jail operations from then-Sheriff P.D. Taylor in 2020, there were 39 detainee deaths through September 2023, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Mar. 2024, p.1.] OCJA board members then couldn’t agree to renew Turn Key’s contract when it expired in June 2024, leaving the company working on a month-to-month basis until the one-year extension was signed in September 2024. But within hours, Turn Key made its dissatisfaction with that agreement known and gave notice it was leaving.

OCJA has since hired 62 former ...

by Sam Rutherford

The New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) has long outsourced its constitutional obligation to provide prisoners adequate medical care to private, for-profit corporations with little incentive to do so. Before November 2019, a $41 million annual contract was held by Centurion Correctional Healthcare of New Mexico, LLC, which lost a battle to withhold documentation of legal settlements when PLN’s publisher prevailed in a suit for the records on September 16, 2024, as reported elsewhere in this issue. [See: PLN, Dec. 2024, p.19.]

Quickly growing since its 2011 founding, Centurion and related companies contract with local, state and federal governments in 15 states at 325 lockups. When Centurion took over healthcare for NMCD in June 2016, predecessor Corizon Health had been sued by state prisoners more than 150 times during its nine-year tenure. Another 24 suits were filed during Centurion’s first year, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Nov. 2018, p.60.]

As PLN also reported, the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), nonprofit publisher of PLN and Criminal Legal News, filed a request pursuant to the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act in August 2020 that Centurion disclose all complaints and settlement agreements for cases in which the company paid ...