Judge orders Milwaukee County to temporarily outsource inmate medical program

By Steve Schultze of the Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee County will hire a Florida firm on an emergency $8.9 million, one-year contract to run the county's inmate medical program using both county and private-sector employees.

Circuit Court Judge William Brash III ordered the move in a oral decision Tuesday, settling a long-running dispute over the quality of the county's medical and mental health care for inmates at the downtown jail and House of Correction in Franklin. Two inmate-advocacy groups sued over gaps in care, including vacancies of top jail health staff for more than two years and lack of a full-time doctor in recent months.

"All of this is an improvement over what we've been enduring over the last 2 ½ years," Peter Koneazny, a lawyer for Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee, said Wednesday. "It's unfortunate it took so long to get to this point."

Armor Correctional Health Care will be paid $8.9 million to provide four key administrators, as well as about 45 employees to fill vacancies. The rest of the jail health unit - 86 nurses, psychiatrists, social workers and others - will remain county employees, though as vacancies occur the county workers could be replaced with Armor employees.

If Armor can't start the work by Saturday, the Medical College of Wisconsin has agreed to provide some help for a month. The jail's part-time doctor leaves his job Friday.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. had recommended outsourcing the jail medical operation for more than two years, but the County Board resisted the move. The county's inability to fill vacancies led to the judge's ruling.