Medical costs soaring at women's prison

Nevada's prison medical director told lawmakers Wednesday there are serious problems with the medical services provided to women inmates by a private contractor.

"Over half of their people are on psychotropic medications," said Dr. Ted D'Amico, indicating the number is too high.

Their medical files should be reviewed to determine how many actually need the powerful, mind-altering drugs, D'Amico said.

Problems go far beyond the fact that Corrections Corporation of America isn't making a profit, D'Amico told the Interim Finance subcommittee looking into whether the state should take over the operation or hire another private contractor.

And while the company complained a major reason it was losing money was the outside medical costs for women inmates, D'Amico pointed out his budget absorbed more than $300,000 in outside medical costs which should have been paid by the corporation.

"I have no problem with that company, but they just don't know how to run a medical operation in Las Vegas," he said.

The company has advised the state it is pulling out of the medical operation and out of managing the women's prison in North Las Vegas because it isn't making money.

"They have from day one struggled with medical at CCA," said D'Amico.

The subcommittee headed by Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, several times expressed concern the corporation or other private contractors were some how being put at a disadvantage compared to the state prison medical division.

Instead, D'Amico said, his medical system has been picking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs because of the corporation's problems.

He said the company is "way behind in their dental care" and his dental staff has been trying to care for the women inmates.

D'Amico, Deputy Prisons Director Glen Whorton and chief financial officer Daryl Rexwinkel all told the committee the department of corrections is ready to take over the 500-bed women's prison. And subcommittee members including Raggio and Assemblywoman Kathy McClain, D-Las Vegas, seemed to indicate they are leaning toward that conclusion.

But Raggio in the past has been unwilling to give up on the idea that privatization can save money in Nevada's prisons.

"It sounds to me if CCA can't make a go of it profit-wise, we're going to get proposals that are much higher than what we can do it for," said McClain.

Raggio agreed that is likely but that the state should review private proposals and compare them with the state's cost to run the prison and medical service and present the information to the finance committee in June. He agreed the state will be on a tight schedule to make a decision one way or another, since the company officially leaves the women's prison Sept. 30.

Whorton and D'Amico told lawmakers they will present not only the best bids but the estimated costs for the prison medical system to take over the operation. And Director of Corrections Jackie Crawford served notice those costs will not only be higher than for the male inmates but higher than the existing contract with Corrections Corporation.

"Women are more expensive to manage," she said, especially in medical costs.

Contact Geoff Dornan at nevadaappeal@sbcglobal.net or 687-8750.