Ideastream, the local National Public Radio affiliate, which has a reputation for fair and accurate journalism, recently posted an article concerning the letting of a contract for medical services at the often troubled Cuyahoga County’s Juvenile Detention Center.
According to the article, as of January 1, 2021, Tennessee-based Wellpath, a private company “with a history of lawsuits and a founder who was indicted for bribery, is set to take over as the medical services provider” at the juvenile lockup. Again according to the article, Wellpath “landed the contract after juvenile justice officials had trouble finding local bidders for the contract, which runs two years and costs about $3 million.”
The contract was approved by the Cuyahoga County Council at a special meeting on December 18, “but several members were critical of the last minute timing of the deal — two weeks before the work starts, and at the inability to work out a deal with a local hospital system.”
Council President Dan Brady said during a public safety committee meeting on December 15, when the contract was first presented to council, “I’m amazed that we could find ourselves in this position.” Really?
Politics aside, Cuyahoga County has the worse reputation in the state, and indeed maybe the nation, in terms of efficiency in governmental operations. This isn’t just idle speculation; it’s a well-known and documentable fact. Nepotism, cronyism and downright ineptitude often run amok on the banks of the Crooked River.
Perhaps the reason no local healthcare provider could be enticed into bidding on the contract is due to past negative experiences dealing with county administrators and elected officials. No organization wants its reputation to take a hit, or worse, end up in court. Who can blame them?
But with that said, delivering healthcare services in any locked environment is challenging at best, and protecting the health of incarcerated juveniles is undoubtedly even more so. Yet there are juvenile facilities all over the country that do get it right. However, when things go wrong behind bars, the usual culprit is privatization. Allowing profiteers to monetize something as essential as healthcare is usually a recipe for disaster.
While the ideastream article chronicled the legal troubles and numerous lawsuits Wellpath has faced over the years, it would have been helpful if the figures were contextualized: How often have other providers of similar services been sued? Without that figure there’s no way to know if the company is better or worse than others in the field.
However, at the end of the day, no for-profit healthcare provider is going to perform much better than the next unless county and court administrators do the jobs they’re getting paid to do — and do them well. In Cuyahoga County I know that’s asking quite a bit.
But here’s one thing that just might work: Let us collectively imagine all of the children in the Juvenile Detention Center are white.
