A whistleblower told of troubles at the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Barksdale Today reported:
On an August afternoon in 2023, three inmates at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility evaded the notice of guards and slipped away from their housing unit. They weren’t plotting to escape the Rankin County prison. Instead, they were on a rescue mission. On their shoulders, they carried a man whose legs seemed to be rotting from the inside out, his flesh cracking like leather left to shrivel in the sun. ... Nowlin provided Mississippi Today with internal messages between current and former department officials showing officials criticizing VitalCore Health Strategies, the company contracted to provide medical care to Mississippi prisoners. The messages show that in private, officials lamented the quality of VitalCore’s health care services even as the company raked in hundreds of millions in public dollars — a money pot that has been growing larger for years.
Nowlin came forward after Mississippi Today reported on the House Corrections chairwoman’s allegations that MDOC is running a financial deficit for its medical program at the same time sick prisoners languish without proper care. In response to Mississippi Today’s questions for that article, MDOC spokesperson Kate Head said the conditions inside Mississippi prisons exceed “constitutional standards” and denied any allegation that inmates receive care below such standards....
Read the rest of the article. It is a damn fine piece of reporting by cub reporter Michael Goldberg.
JJ reported in October that Commissioner Cain repeatedly issued four no-bid contracts to Vitalcore from 2020-23. The contracts increased from $56 million to $100 million. Earlier post.
20 comments:
Lot$ of palm grea$ing going on here.
A couple years ago, Governor Tate Reeves visited Parchman Prison. He stated “I had no clue” conditions were this bad, yet had been a leader in state government for many years. Then stated he was going to “stop the bleeding.” Empty words…
Without "Contract steering" he wouldn't be able to afford his vacation home/s.
Have you ever seen an article that was complementary of the medical care provided inmates?
VitalCore also provides medical services to many of the county jails.
the only voices that Tater Tot and the legislature listens to are the voices of the people who fly into Jackson on private jets at 10am and leave the same day by 4pm. Basically, billionaire lawyers and lobbyists from out of state.
Any airport watcher on FlightAware can see where the jets arive from and where they return to.
These people arent Mississippians.
Yes, but published by VitalCore.
The prison and jail systems in LA and MS have been very good for certain families yet again it seems.
Boss Hogg wins again. Rankin sure pays dividends to our boys in blue and tan. Angola and Parchman too.
Well Luigi Mangione murdered UHC CEO. & didn’t even have their insurance. Wonder if healthcare in his jail is better than MS?
This is what happens when we hire people who are too crooked even for Louisiana.
If you have a truckload of palm grease how many emergency no-bid contracts will that get?
Healthcare in MS is substandard, so why would anyone expect it to be better in prison?
There's a simple solution to avoid subpar healthcare in prisons...
How can I invest in Vitalcore? Asking for an inmate
"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
Do those high paid folks still have jobs?? This is disgusting.
There are more whistleblowers. I wish they would talk and fast.
Why does the name Bennett Malone keep bouncing around in my head?
Some Elected officials and their Agency Heads used to be happy about getting their High 4 years in PERS Retirement now it’s the beach homes in Orange Beach and the Destin area!
What became of Commissioner Epps' 'beach home condos'?
Exactly. This is such a non-story. Mississippi is last in everything....so it would not bode well for anyone getting incarcerated there.
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