County officials have made big strides on health care coverage, population control and infrastructure repair at the Jackson County Detention Center within the past year.
The county has privatized medical services. They’re now using Advanced Correctional Healthcare.
The quality of services has been excellent, according to jail staff. When the new program was started, more than a hundred back-logged medical appointments were handled within the first three weeks.
Medical care became a team effort between health services and corrections staff, according to Ken Conlee, director of the detention center.
Also, transportation of inmates outside the facility dropped. As a result, staff overtime associated with transportation for medical care also dropped. Outside medical appointments have dropped from more than 125 per month to between 15 and 20 per month.
Medical copays were put in place for inmates who have the means to participate financially in their own care. But all inmates are afforded medical care regardless of their ability to assist in the payment.
The copay of $5 per doctor visit has helped manage the number of visits. The copay is used to assist in the self-management of care by the inmates and to assist in offsetting costs of medical care. The $5 fee is less than half the cost of the average comparable facilities, Conlee said.
After implementing the copay system, there has been a 50 percent drop in the number of requests to see a doctor.
“This has been a team effort,” said County Executive Mike Sanders at Monday’s county meeting, where officials briefed legislators on the improvements.
Maintenance issues have been addressed at the jail because public works crews that routinely worked at the jail were transferred to the corrections department.
Now, work orders have increased to more than 300 completed per month compared to around 100 previously.
Also, new door check policies has resulted in a reduction of damaged cell doors from an average of 30 doors a day to nearly 0.
Under a new jail policy, any time an inmate assaults a corrections officer or commits lewd behavior, the sheriff’s office responds and writes a report for possible charges and prosecution. Inmates demonstrated lewd behavior toward female corrections officers, resulting in charges, Conlee said.
“I think this has improved the morale of corrections officers,” Conlee said. “Now they know that something will be done when these incidents happen.”
Managing population of the number of inmates has been a success, too, Conlee said.
At one point, the jail reached nearly 900 inmates. The county established a target of a maximum of 835 inmates. The reduction has been achieved through better evaluation of potential pre-trial diversion programs for population management and identifying inmates for some type of pre-trial supervised release program.
Blue Springs, MO —
