Don Behm

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A Miami-based company hired under a 2013 court order to correct glaring shortcomings with jail inmate medical services provided by Milwaukee County workers will be ousted because of its own problem-packed record when an extended contract ends March 31.

But the company tagged as the possible successor faces nearly identical complaints at several jails around the country.

County administration officials recommended hiring Wellpath, a private health care company based in Nashville, Tennessee, to do the work at the jail and House of Correction. Armor Correctional Health Services and four other companies had applied for the new contract, officials said.

The move to replace Armor with a new company comes as the County Board is pushing to take the work away from any private contractor and return it to county workers.

Wellpath became the largest contractor of correctional health care in the U.S. when it formed in November from the merger of Correct Care Solutions and Correctional Medical Group Companies.

A Wellpath website says the company provides medical and behavioral health at nearly 400 county jails and community detention facilities as well as 147 state and federal prisons. One is the Dane County Jail in Madison. Another is New Orleans.

Criticism of the service provided by Correct Care Solutions in the New Orleans jail is similar to complaints about Armor here: inadequate staffing levels and poor quality of care.

Correct Care Solutions is named in several wrongful-death lawsuits brought by families of inmates who died at the jail and the company received a short-term extension of its contract in New Orleans in September as local officials continue to study options.

In Marion County, Indiana, Correct Care Solutions has been sued by a former inmate who claims employees of the for-profit company delayed giving him a cancer drug for more than a month after he was incarcerated there this year.

RELATED:Milwaukee County Board pushes hiring county workers instead of private company for jail inmate medical services

Since Milwaukee County remains under court order to contract with Armor, either the choice of a new company or a return to county workers would need to be approved by the court.

Armor's record of not complying with staffing requirements, poor care and falsifying inmate health records spurred board supervisors last week to ask for a study of the feasibility of hiring public employees.

The study could take three to six months under a timetable offered by consultants at the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, according to a Dec. 19 memo to supervisors from Amy Pechacek, deputy director of administrative services.

There can be no gap in providing inmate medical services, however, when Armor leaves March 31.

So the board will be asked in January to consider awarding a contract to Wellpath starting in April along with approving the study of taking the service in-house, Pechacek said.

Administration officials are negotiating several options for the period covered by a possible Wellpath contract to allow a short duration for completion of the feasibility study and a final board decision or a longer length.

"We are working to retain all of our options," Pechacek said.

Several supervisors expressed confidence that county workers would do a better job this time around and one reason for their optimism is that a new sheriff, Earnell Lucas, will take office in January.

Former Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. was in office in 2013 when a Milwaukee County judge ordered the county to hire Armor to take over inmate medical care after the county was unable to correct its own problems with staffing shortages and poor record keeping.

RELATED:Auditors confirm company did not comply with medical services contract at Milwaukee County Jail, House of Correction

RELATED:Milwaukee County Jail's health care contractor charged with falsifying inmate records

Armor did not right the ship.

In February of this year, Armor was charged in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with falsifying health care records of inmates at the jail, including Terrill Thomas, who died of dehydration while in custody in April 2016.

County auditors in August of this year reported that the company failed to meet contract staffing requirements at the jail and House of Correction during the time — November 2015 to August 2017 — that several people died while in custody at the jail.

In the fall of 2016, the court-ordered monitor of the Milwaukee County Jail found the deaths of three inmates came after mistakes in medical care and potentially poor monitoring of vulnerable inmates.

County officials this month negotiated an agreement with Armor to extend its current contract for three months, to March 31 of next year.

The county will pay Armor up to $5.7 million for the three months, or 32% of the total $17.6 million included in the 2019 budget for inmate medical services.