Inmate health care contract approved

SANDOVAL COUNTY — The County Commission this week unanimously approved a $908,000 contract with Correctional Healthcare Companies to provide health care services, including mental health services, for jail inmates.

The nationally known correctional health care company provides services for almost 70,000 inmates in more than 250 correctional centers in 27 states across the country, according to an online description of the company.

County spokesman Sidney Hill on Friday said he couldn’t “relate it one way or the other” to the county’s hopes of returning federal prisoners in the jail.

Detention Center Director Al Casamento this week, however, told the commission that the jail has worked with federal authorities to revamp procedures, including strengthening mental health care and suicide watch procedures.

The Sandoval County Detention Center was housing an average of 150 to 170 federal inmates daily until March last year, when the U.S. Marshals Service pulled federal prisoners from the jail over concerns about three suicides that occurred there. Payments for housing the prisoners was a significant source of revenue.

Hill said a consultant hired by the county has completed a report outlining how the county can revamp its jail procedures, which include strengthening mental health care and suicide watch procedures.